Comm SIA

SIEBEL eCOMMUNICATIONS
GUIDE
VERSION 7.5, REV. B
JULY 2003
12-FRLK2B
Siebel Systems, Inc., 2207 Bridgepointe Parkway, San Mateo, CA 94404
Copyright
2003 Siebel Systems, Inc.

All rights reserved.
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Version 7.5, Rev. B Siebel eCommunications Guide 3
Contents
1 Siebel eCommunications Guide 1
Introduction
How This Guide Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Whats New in This Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 1. Product Overview
Key Features of Siebel eCommunications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Product Modules and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Business Functions of Screen Tabs in Siebel eCommunications . . . . . . . . 24
Chapter 2. Accounts
Accounts Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Business Scenario for Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Administrator Procedure for Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Setting Up External Organizations (Administrator) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
End-User Procedures for Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Creating an Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Creating an Account Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Reviewing an Account Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Accessing or Updating Account Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Monitoring Infrastructure, Equipment, and Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Contents
4 Siebel eCommunications Guide Version 7.5, Rev. B
Chapter 3. Profiles
Profiles Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Business Scenario for Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
End-User Procedures for Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Creating and Updating a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
About Billing Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
About Customer Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
About Exemption Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
About Financial Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
About Fraud Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
About Loyalty Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
About Site Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
About Statement Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Creating and Updating an Address Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter 4. Contacts
Business Scenario for Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
End-User Procedures for Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Adding a Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Modifying a Contact Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Creating a Contact-Related Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Associating a Contact with a Trouble Ticket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Additional Procedures Related to Contact Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Chapter 5. Agreements and Entitlements
Agreements and Entitlements Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Business Scenarios for Agreements and Entitlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Administrator Procedures for Agreements and Entitlements . . . . . . . . . . 79
Contents
Setting Up Templates for the Auto Document Feature (Administrator) . . . 79
End-User Procedures for Agreements and Entitlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Adding an Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Adding Terms to an Agreement and Generating a Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Creating and Printing an Agreement Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Associating an Agreement with an Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Associating an Agreement with a Service Item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Revising an Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Viewing Agreement Details in the Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Chapter 6. Premises
Business Scenario for Premises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Administrator Procedures for Premises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Setting Up Premise Records (Administrator) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Registering a Premise Hookup (Administrator) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
End-User Procedures for Premises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Associating an Activity with a Premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Verifying the Premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Viewing Service Point Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Viewing Usage History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Viewing Service Requests for a Premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Adding a Service Request for a Premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Adding Infrastructure Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Premises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Chapter 7. Assets
Assets Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Business Scenario for Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Contents
End-User Procedures for Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Creating an Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Associating Related Assets with a Primary Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Viewing Hierarchical Information for an Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Creating a Transaction for an Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Viewing Components Associated with an Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Adding a Service Request Associated with an Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Adding a Change Request Associated with an Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Viewing Service Points and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter 8. Opportunities
Business Scenario for Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
End-User Procedures for Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Creating an Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Associating an Account with an Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Associating a Product with an Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Creating a Quote for an Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Creating a Profile for an Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Associating a Related Site with an Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Associating a Partner with an Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter 9. Billing
Business Scenario for Billing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
End-User Procedures for Billing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Accessing or Updating Billing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Entering Payment Against an Outstanding Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Viewing Usage Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Contents
Viewing Unbilled Charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Overview of Adjustment Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Requesting an Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Viewing an Adjustment Request Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Recording a Customers Decision About Adjustment Outcome Terms . . . 140
Overview of Payment Arrangement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Requesting a Payment Arrangement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Viewing the Outcome of a Payment Arrangement Request . . . . . . . . . . 142
Recording a Customers Decision About Payment Arrangement Terms . . 143
Requesting a Duplicate Invoice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Updating a Billing Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Billing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Administrator Procedures for Billing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Generating Credit, Fraud, and Usage Information (Administrator) . . . . . 145
Setting Up the Invoice Image Feature (Administrator) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Chapter 10. Work Orders
Business Scenario for Work Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
End-User Procedures for Work Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Creating a Work Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Adding an Activity to a Work Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Creating Work Order Line Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Adding Work Order Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Work Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Chapter 11. Service Requests and Trouble Tickets
Service Requests and Trouble Tickets Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Business Scenario for Service Requests and Trouble Tickets . . . . . . . . . 159
Contents
Administrator Setup for Service Requests and Trouble Tickets . . . . . . . . 162
End-User Procedures for Service Requests and Trouble Tickets . . . . . . . . 162
Overview of Trouble Ticket Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Creating a Trouble Ticket Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Assigning a Trouble Ticket to a Person or Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Associating Parent and Child Trouble Tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Trouble Ticket Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Resolving Trouble Tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Using the Customer Satisfaction Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Analyzing Trouble Tickets Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Trouble Tickets . . . . . . . . . . 170
Chapter 12. Credit Management
Credit Management Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Business Scenario for Credit Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
End-User Procedures for Credit Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Reviewing and Adding a Credit Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Adding an Activity to a Credit Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Communication with the Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Entering Payment Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Overview of Requests for Account Adjustments or Payment Plans . . . . . . 182
Submitting a Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Viewing a Request Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Recording the Customers Decision About the Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Closing a Credit Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Credit Management . . . . . . . 188
Contents
Chapter 13. Fraud Management
Fraud Management Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Business Scenario for Fraud Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
End-User Procedures for Fraud Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Viewing Fraud Alerts and Fraud Alert Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Follow-Up with the Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Changing Fraud Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Updating the Fraud Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Additional Procedures Related to Fraud Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Chapter 14. Defining an Integration Workflow Process
Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Business Scenarios for Defining Integration Workflow Processes . . . . . . 199
Sample Integration Workflow Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Sample Workflow Process: CUT Send Account Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Sample Workflow Process: CUT Receive Account Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Index
Contents
Introduction
This guide describes the features and administrative procedures that are specific to
the Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia applications. It should be used in
combination with other books in the Application Administration section of the
Siebel Bookshelf CD-ROM. However, the information in this book supersedes
information about standard Siebel products provided in other documentation.
All procedures described in this book are relevant to both Siebel eCommunications
and Siebel eMedia. The name Siebel eMedia can be substituted for Siebel
eCommunications throughout the book where it refers to procedures that are
common to both applications.
This guide will be most useful to people whose title or job description matches one
of the following:
Call Center
Administrators
Persons responsible for setting up and maintaining a call center.
Duties include designing and managing Computer Telephony
Integration (CTI), SmartScripts, and message broadcasts.
Database
Administrators
Persons who administer the database system, including data
loading, system monitoring, backup and recovery, space
allocation and sizing, and user account management.
Marketing
Administrators
Persons responsible for setting up and maintaining a marketing
department. Duties include designing and managing campaigns,
product marketing information, and product distribution lists.
Siebel Application
Administrators
Persons responsible for planning, setting up, and maintaining
Siebel applications.
Network
Administrators
Persons responsible for planning, setting up, and maintaining
networks.
Trainers Persons responsible for training end users of the Siebel
eCommunications and Siebel eMedia applications.
Introduction
How This Guide Is Organized
How This Guide Is Organized
This guide begins with a few chapters containing introductory material about Siebel
eCommunications and Siebel eMedia. Every chapter after those, except for
Chapter 14, Defining an Integration Workflow Process, describes a different
screen and functional area of the product that are commonly used by customers.
Chapter 14, Defining an Integration Workflow Process, describes the workflow
processes contained in the sample database that can be imported to automate
business processes.
This guide assumes that you have already installed Siebel eCommunications or
Siebel eMedia. If you have not, see the installation books on the Siebel Bookshelf.
The Siebel database server installation script creates a Siebel administrator account
that can be used to perform the tasks described in this guide. For information about
this process, see Siebel Server Administration Guide and the installation books on
the Siebel Bookshelf.
CAUTION: Do not perform system administration functions on your local database.
Doing so may have serious results, such as data conflicts or an overly large local
database.
Introduction
Whats New in This Release
This section summarizes the enhancements made to Siebel eCommunications for
version 7.5. Some enhancements are documented in this guide, while others are
documented in other guides. For more information on specific enhancements, see
the Siebel Bookshelf.
Billing Management
The Billing module (now called Invoices) includes the following enhancements for
7.5.
Invoice views. The new multi-level Invoice module allows users to see invoices at the
summary or segment level, as well as at the detail level. The functionality exposes
the information stored in third-party billing systems. Therefore, to determine which
information to work with, the invoice views include a new filter to differentiate
between external invoices and invoices generated in Siebel applications.
Adjustment functionality. Users now have the ability create adjustment requests for
invoice lines, allowing the user to identify a disputed line on the bill and create an
adjustment request specifically for that line. It is also possible to identify and adjust
multiple lines on one invoice with one adjustment request.
Payment functionality. Payments can now be viewed on separate screens, which
allows the user to do queries across accounts. In addition, users can create a
payment at the account level, allowing the users to make a payment in spite of an
outstanding invoice, as well as against multiple invoices with one payment request.
In addition, invoices, payments, and adjustments can now be viewed on separate
screens, allowing the user to do queries across accounts.
Billing Portal view. The new Billing Portal view provides a view of the customer's
billing related data. The new Account Balances functionality retrieves data directly
from the external billing system. From the Billing Portal, users can perform the most
commonly executed tasks related to a customer inquiry, such as viewing an account
balance, making a payment, or requesting an adjustment. The Billing Portal also
contains a Refresh button for displaying the latest information available from the
billing system after a transaction.
Introduction
SAP/ISU-CCS connectivity. Siebel eCommunications can better integrate with
customer information systems, especially the SAP/ISU-CCS solution. Intuitive data
mapping and documented design solutions between such areas as account
management, order management, and premises management allow Siebel
eCommunications to provide a completely integrated solution for processes like
enrollment, billing inquiries, budget billing, deposit collection, and payment plans.
For more information, see Chapter 9, Billing.
Analytics
Siebel Analytics includes the following enhancements for 7.5.
Loyalty Management Analytics. Successful customer loyalty and retention marketing
programs play a critical role in improving margins, profitability, and the operating
viability of service providers. Siebel Analytics enhances the effectiveness of loyalty
and retention programs by providing customer analysis based upon predictive
intelligence gathered about customers using a third-party predictive modeling
application (purchased separately from, and integrated with, Siebel applications).
These analysis capabilities provide for the ability to proactively intervene, before
the predicted customer behavior occurs, with targeted marketing offers or
alternative actions.
Enhancements to Loyalty Management Analytics include additional reports for the
Churn Propensity and Customer Lifetime Value dashboards. A new Selling
Propensity dashboard provides predictive intelligence about upsell and cross-sell
opportunities, and a Financial Risk dashboard provides analytics based upon an
estimation of each customer's ability to pay financial obligations. New reports are
also available that identify those customers who have scored the highest for each
scoring category.
Revenue Management and Account Management Analytics. An organization's ability to
understand how well its products, services, and accounts perform is key to its
success. Siebel Analytics provides a Revenue Management dashboard, and an
Account dashboard for insight into each of these areas. Both dashboards provide a
separate set of reports for service activation, service modification, and service
disconnection trending analysis. While Revenue Management focuses analysis on
products and top performing products, Account Management focuses on accounts
and top performing accounts. Additionally, Account Management provides trending
analysis for trouble tickets and customer satisfaction at both the account and more
aggregated levels.
Introduction
Price Type Filter. Revenue associated with products and services in the Siebel
eCommunications product may recur over time (such as a monthly recurring
charge), occur only once (one-time only charge), or be based upon usage (such as
a per-minute charge). This characteristic of revenue is reflected in the product's
Price Type value. Siebel Analytics can narrow product analysis down to only those
products of a particular Price Type, if needed. Isolating products in this manner
helps companies spot trends that may be related to the nature of a product's
revenue stream.
For more information, see the Siebel Bookshelf.
Premises
The Premises module includes the following enhancements for 7.5:
The ability to create a Service Point during the ordering process
The ability to create and order a product from a Service Point
For more information, see Chapter 6, Premises.
Siebel Partner Relationship Management
With new usability enhancements, Siebel Partner Relationship Management (Siebel
PRM) for Siebel eCommunications provides an improved ordering platform for
partners and resellers. It includes the following enhancements for 7.5.
User-based ordering flow. For 7.5, the control of the ordering flow in PRM is based on
user responsibilities. This allows a more streamlined order checkout for Standard
users and a more thorough Opportunity-Quote-Order cycle for Power users.
Agreements. The Agreements module is now available in the Siebel PRM Partner
Portal. This enhancement provides channel partners and resellers with the ability
to define Service Level Agreements for their customers products. It also provides
administrators with the ability to assign products to agreements.
Product finder. Users can now search for products using the enhanced Siebel PRM
Partner Portal Search Center. This allows partners operating in retail environments
to check for a price or product description. In addition, the integration with the
product catalog minimizes the number of clicks to add products to the shopping cart
and checkout.
Introduction
For more information, see Siebel Order Management Guide, Siebel Order
Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications, and Siebel Partner
Relationship Management Administration Guide.
Introduction
Revision History
Revision History
Siebel eCommunications Guide
Version 7.5, Rev. B
January 2003 Bookshelf
Table 1. Changes Made in Version 7.5, Rev. B
Topic Revision
Setting Up External Organizations
(Administrator) on page 38
An administrator procedure has been added for
setting up external organizations.
Defining an Integration Workflow
Process on page 197
The chapters introductory section has been revised
as follows:
A clarification was added that workflows listed
in the chapter may not be available in the
sample database but may be requested.
A brief explanation of Universal Application
Network (UAN) has been added.
Table 2. Changes Made in Rev. A for January 2003 Bookshelf
Topic Revision
Registering a Premise Hookup
(Administrator) on page 92
Procedure was incomplete. Added description of
Product field to the field table.
Introduction
Revision History
Product Overview
1
Siebel eCommunications is a suite of eBusiness applications that allows media and
communications service providers to manage, synchronize, and coordinate their
customers Internet, call center, field organization, and distribution channel
requirements. It is designed to meet the needs of media service and content
providers, and wireline, wireless, and Internet service providers. It serves a wide
range of customers, from residential consumers to global corporations.
Siebel eCommunications allows user access to customer data residing in other
systems. Using the Siebel eBusiness Application Integration (eAI) functionality, it
integrates with billing, operations support systems (OSSs), and enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems.
Siebel eBusiness Applications are designed to work together to provide an
integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. Siebel
eCommunications allows media and communications companies to implement
Siebel modules that include sales, service, and marketing functionality. These
modules include Siebel Sales, Siebel Service, Siebel Call Center, Siebel Field Service,
and Siebel Configurator.
Siebel Anywhere allows the Siebel system administrator to apply upgrades to
Dedicated Web Clients, Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel servers.
Product Overview
Key Features of Siebel eCommunications
Table 3 describes how Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia provide
solutions for key business issues.
Table 3. Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia Solutions for Key Business Issues
Business Issue Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia Solutions
Account and Premises
management
Management of accounts through multilevel account hierarchies based on
complex account relationships
Independent management of service accounts and billing accounts
Tracking of physical facilities and network delivery points through premise
records
Tracking of meters at service points
Management of account and customer information through profiles
Agreement management Automated production of agreements from accepted quotes
Coordination of pricing information
Assigning of standard terms, conditions, and features
Tracking to make sure that agreements and service entitlements are fulfilled
Audit trail Creation of a history of all the changes that have been made to various
kinds of information
Records show who has accessed an item, what operation has been
performed, when it was performed, and how the value was changed
Useful for maintaining security, examining the history of a particular
record, and documenting modifications for future analysis and record-
keeping
Billing management Integration with back-office billing systems
Query and display of billing information
Management of payment information, payment plans, bill adjustments, and
bill profiles
Call center optimization Single desktop to manage multiple types of customer interactions
Computer telephony integration (CTI) to connect callers with the most
qualified agent
Integrated Web and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) self-service
functionality
Product Overview
Credit management Integration with a back-office credit system
Management of credit alerts
Notification of customers who are delinquent in payments
Customer acquisition Analytical tools for segmenting prospects and developing targeted
campaigns
Campaign management tools for developing and executing multichannel
campaigns
Prebuilt performance analysis tools
Call scripting (providing text that uses proactive selling and retention
techniques for employees to use when speaking with customers)
Territory assignment, lead scoring, and routing
Customer and partner
applications
Siebel Partner Relationship Management, which allows your company to
turn channel partners into an extended, virtual sales and service
organization through the Internet
Siebel eService, which allows your customers to create and track their own
trouble tickets and service requests, and to search for answers to frequently
asked questions (FAQs), through the Internet
Siebel eSales, which allows your customers to use the Internet to browse
though your companys products and services, and to configure and
purchase them
Customer retention Customer profile that is shared throughout the enterprise
Profile analysis to predict customer churn
Generation of win-back actions
Sales tools that increase sales effectiveness and maximize time spent
building relationships
Tools for marketing analysis, campaign development, and execution
Equipment and
infrastructure
Management of physical assets available at a customer site
Tracking of equipment sales to accounts
Management of meters and assets
Product Overview
Fraud management Integration with a back-office fraud management system
Management of fraud alerts
Definition of relevant thresholds for customer fraud profiles
Classification of customer accounts to indicate the likelihood of fraud
Management of customer accounts that are either late in settlement or
delinquent
Order configuration and
management
Siebel Configurator automates the generation of quotes and sales orders
Tracking of relationships between sales, sales orders, and work orders
Definition of process rules and automatic escalation of open sales orders
Use of product classes and attributes, and product bundles in generating
sales orders
Provisioning of sales orders through work orders
Pricing management A set of tools for defining pricing adjustments and the conditions under
which they should be applied
An engine that evaluates condition statements and determines which
pricing adjustments to apply
A testing area that allows assessment of the pricing adjustments
Integration with end-user interfaces such as Quotes, Orders, Siebel eSales,
Siebel Partner Relationship Management, and Siebel eConfigurator
Siebel Marketing Analysis of customer information and measurement of campaign results
with eIntelligence
Creation and execution of targeted marketing campaigns
Internet marketing with eMarketing: Integrated email campaigns,
customized Web offers, personalized Web pages, Internet newsletters, and
Internet surveys
Product Overview
Product Modules and Options
Product Modules and Options
Many Siebel eBusiness Applications modules can be purchased and used with
Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia. In addition, optional modules specific
to Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia can be purchased to provide
enhanced functionality for various business processes.
Third-party and legacy
integration
Prebuilt COM and CORBA interfaces to leading Operating System Software
(OSS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications
Integration mapping tools for cross-application process integration
Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM), which allows bidirectional
data exchange and synchronization
Performing credit verification and address validation
Maintenance of billing accounts through an external billing system
Trouble ticket and service
request management
Single platform for logging, assigning, managing, and resolving customers
problems, including network problems or outages affecting customers
Online solutions search capability
Proactive customer notifications through email, pager, fax, and Internet
Automatic escalation of overdue trouble tickets and service requests
Integration with external outage management systems
Upselling and cross-selling Scripting engine that identifies upsell and cross-sell opportunities with
every customer contact
Product configuration system that prompts the salesperson to propose high-
margin services
Integrated asset management system that provides information about
configuration at each service location
Usage, billing, and service
detail
Access to customer usage and service information
Summary customer data for account analysis
Product Overview
Business Functions of Screen Tabs in Siebel eCommunications
For information about the optional modules that can be used with Siebel
eCommunications and Siebel eMedia, contact your Siebel sales representative.
NOTE: This guide documents Siebel eCommunications with the optional modules
installed. In addition, the Sample database includes data for optional modules. If
your installation does not include some of these modules, your software interface
will differ from that described in some sections of this guide.
The exact configuration of Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia screens and
views depends on your companys configuration of the application. For introductory
information about using the Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia interfaces,
see Fundamentals and Siebel Online Help.
Business Functions of Screen Tabs in Siebel
eCommunications
The Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia interfaces include procedure-
specific screens. Some screens are used exclusively by administrators. Table 4 lists
the most frequently used Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia screens and
the functions of the views in those screens.
Table 4. Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eMedia Screens
Screen Functions For More Information
Accounts Create, view, and update accounts. Set up and
maintain account hierarchies. Define and
maintain account profile information. Query
customer bills. Record bill payments,
repayment plans, and adjustments.
See Chapter 2, Accounts, Chapter 3,
Profiles, and Chapter 9, Billing in
this guide
Activities Track personal activities and view activities for
other team members. Track the progress of
accounts, trouble tickets, service requests,
interactions with contacts, and opportunities.
See Siebel Call Center User Guide
Agreements Create, generate, modify, approve, and track
agreements.
See Chapter 5, Agreements and
Entitlements, in this guide
Product Overview
Assets Manage information about products sold to
accounts.
See Siebel Field Service Guide
Audit Trail Creates a history of the changes that have been
made in Siebel eCommunications and Siebel
eMedia.
See Applications Administration Guide
Briefings Gather and format information from a number
of different sources, both inside and outside
your company, including the World Wide Web.
See Siebel eBriefings Administration
Guide
Calendar Create and display activities (including to-do
activities) and share calendar information with
co-workers.
See Fundamentals
Campaigns Manage outbound communications with
prospects targeted for a particular marketing
effort.
Contacts Record and track business and personal
contact information associated with an
account, an opportunity, a trouble ticket, or
service request.
See Chapter 4, Contacts, in this
guide
Credit
Management
Manage and monitor customer credit issues.
Share data with third-party credit management
applications.
See Chapter 12, Credit Management,
in this guide
Entitlements Associate entitlements with accounts,
contacts, and products. Determine a
customers eligibility for service under its
entitlements.
See Chapter 5, Agreements and
Entitlements, in this guide
Expense Reports Manage expense-report information for your
own expenses, or your teams expenses.
Forecasts Create business forecasts based on
opportunities or products.
Fraud
Management
Manage and monitor customer fraud issues.
Share data with third-party fraud management
applications.
See Chapter 13, Fraud Management,
in this guide
Product Overview
Literature Display company- and industry-related
literature cataloged by the Siebel
administrator.
Opportunities Manage sales opportunities for business and
residential customers.
See Chapter 8, Opportunities, in this
guide
Orders Create sales orders and track their status.
Generate order summaries.
See Siebel Order Management Guide
and Siebel Order Management Guide
Addendum for Industry Applications
Premises Create and maintain premises. Track service
points, customer premise equipment, and
meters associated with a premise.
See Chapter 6, Premises, in this
guide
Products Display products, product lines, product
features, and price lists.
Quality Manage information about adverse events or
reactions related to products.
Quotes Create, view, and update quotes. Update
opportunities and configure solutions for
quotes.
Service Requests Create, display, and update customer requests
for information about or assistance with
products or services.
See Chapter 11, Service Requests and
Trouble Tickets, in this guide
SmartScripts Define the application workflow for an
interactive situation in a script. These
interactive situations could include inbound
communications (such as customer service)
and outbound contacts (such as
telemarketing).
See Siebel SmartScript Administration
Guide
Solutions Search, organize, and add to a knowledge base
of answers to service requests and trouble
tickets.
See Siebel Field Service Guide
Product Overview
Trouble Tickets Create, display, and update customer requests
for information about or assistance with
products or services.
See Chapter 11, Service Requests and
Trouble Tickets, in this guide
Work Orders Manage the work components associated with
activating or turning off service for a customer.
See Chapter 10, Work Orders, in this
guide
Product Overview
Accounts
2
This chapter defines some basic concepts about accounts. It also provides the
procedures for setting up account hierarchies and updating account information.
Administrators, such as call center administrators, sales administrators, and sales
managers, will benefit from reading this chapter. It describes how your customer
service representatives (end users) will enter information into the accounts screens,
which form the hub of customer information. After becoming familiar with the end-
user procedures, you can customize the software to fit your companys needs.
Accounts Overview
An account is any external organization with which your company does business.
It negotiates agreements, receives service and bills, and raises trouble tickets. An
account is usually the central entity of a Siebel CRM implementation.
After adding accounts in Siebel eCommunications, end users at your company will
contribute information for tracking customer service, processing requests, viewing
agreements, and so on.
Account Hierarchy
A single account per customer will probably meet your companys needs to track
the accounts of residential customers. However, for large commercial clients, end
users might need to build an account hierarchy. An account hierarchy is a multilevel
structure reflecting parent-child relationships within the organization.
Within a complex account hierarchy, an account usually represents one of these:
A customer, prospective customer, or household
An individual service or billing account
An aggregate account for billing or service accounts
Accounts
Accounts Overview
A division in an organization
An entire organization
Hierarchies can accommodate subsidiaries and complex organizations that have,
for example, a world headquarters, multiple regional headquarters, and many
branch locations, each with its own service and billing requirements.
This multiple-level structure supports a top-down view of the customer. Separate
child accounts can be used to designate which information pertains to one
subsidiary or another within the organization.
A hierarchy has these further advantages:
It allows you to maintain customer information, such as address and contact
name at each point in the hierarchy.
It aids in specifying usage and billing roll-up relationships.
It allows you to create and maintain aggregation points and to support complex
discounting methods.
To fully support mergers, demergers and corporate restructuring, Siebel
eCommunications automatically updates the master account or parent account of
an account record and its children when the changes are made to the account
hierarchy. In particular, it is possible to reparent a child account if that subsidiary
is sold to another holding company, or to reparent a whole organization if it is
purchased by another entity. These changes take effect by changing the parent
account of the account record.
Account Classes
An account class is a method for classifying an account according to its position and
role in an account hierarchy. When setting up the hierarchy, end users define
parent-child relationships among the accounts. Then they designate which account
class applies to each new account, according to your customers requirements and
organizational structure.
Accounts
Accounts Overview
For example, with communications companies, it is common for the service to be
delivered to one subsidiary while bills get sent to another subsidiary. Separate
accounts would be created for each subsidiary, one with the account class service
and the other with the account class billing to reflect their different functions. An
account given the account class service generally stores service item information
and allows end users to analyze the customers usage or orders. An account given
the account class billing generally stores information for the financial transaction or
invoice.
Siebel eCommunications does not restrict parent-child associations based on
account class. Any class can be a child of any other class. For example, a customer
account can be placed anywhere in the hierarchy, and a billing account can be the
parent or the child of a service account. To enforce hierarchy rules based on account
class, you need to set them up through state models. For more information about
state models, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide.
Out of the box, Siebel eCommunications provides these five classes for accounts:
Customer Class. An account with this class represents the actual customer,
person, or organization that is receiving service. A customer account includes
basic customer information, such as the company name and headquarters
address. It can receive both service and bills.
Service Aggregator Class. An account with this class receives aggregate usage
details for all of its subsidiary accounts. It can be anywhere in the account
hierarchy. It allows you to generate and view multiple service accounts that
share some specifications.
Implementation example: A company has three offices in different states, and each
office receives a wired phone service and a wireless phone service. Each office
can have both services set up as separate service accounts, with each office set
up as a service aggregate account for the services.
Service Class. An account with this class receives service, but not bills. In the
account hierarchy, it is the account level at which the physical delivery of the
service or product occurs. It can represent a person or organization with multiple
service addresses.
Accounts
Accounts Overview
Billing Aggregator Class. An account with this class receives aggregate billing
details for all of its subsidiary accounts. It can be anywhere in the account
hierarchy. It allows you to generate and view multiple billing accounts that have
some of the same specifications. It can be set up to bill the customer based on
certain requests, such as creating bills for the different services and rolling those
separate billing statements into a billing aggregate account. It also allows you to
create and maintain billing aggregation points and to support complex
discounting methods. It receives and aggregates bills.
Implementation example: A company has offices in different states, and each
office receives services two different services: broadband TV and broadband
Internet. Each office can have both services set up as separate billing accounts,
and each office can be set up as a billing aggregate account for the services. Then
the corporate headquarters can be set up as a billing aggregate for the three
offices and a single payment can be made for the services.
Billing Class. An account with this class is used to invoice the customer for
products and services. In the account hierarchy, it is the account level at which
the financial transactions for the service or product occur. It shows the collection
of all charges applied to a customer in a given time frame for which the customer
must submit payment.
Accounts
Accounts Overview
Siebel eCommunications displays certain information based on the account class:
The Service Account and Billing Account Explorers filter on account class.
In the Quotes and Order Entry views, only those accounts with the appropriate
account class will appear in the dialog box for association.
NOTE: You can set up additional account classes or rename the default classes.
However, when renaming, be careful to rename the explorers as well, because they
filter accounts on class names. For instructions on modifying account classes, see
Applications Administration Guide.
Figure 1 shows an example of an account hierarchy where parent-child
relationships are established along service and billing account classes.
Figure 1. Example of Account Hierarchy
Accounts
Accounts Overview
Account Roles and Responsibilities
Sales administrators and sales managers usually oversee the creation and
maintenance of accounts by their teams. All team members (end users) can create
an account and update account information.
Table 5 lists the roles and responsibilities related to account procedures.
Table 5. Account Roles and Responsibilities
Role Description
Administrator Sales Administrator or Sales Manager
Determines what information is required for an account
Determines what account information is visible to each member
of the sales force
Reviews and analyzes account activity to measure performance
and improve sales effectiveness
Reviews account hierarchies developed by the sales staff
End User Customer Service Representative
Performs call center activities, primarily responding to customer
inquiries and sales order requests
Creates accounts for new customers, including the required key
information for an account
Updates accounts for existing customers
Understands relationship between accounts and associated
contacts
Creates account hierarchies
Understands account hierarchies and relationship of accounts
within hierarchy
Sales Representative
Focuses on outside sales and customer relationship management
Creates accounts for new customers, including the required key
information for an account
Updates accounts (such as creating a sales opportunity), creates
sales orders, and tracks service requests or trouble tickets
Creates account hierarchies, designating parent-child
relationships among an organizations accounts
Accounts
Business Scenario for Accounts
This scenario shows a sequence of procedures performed by an end user. Your
company may follow a different sequence according to its business requirements.
A customer service representative (CSR) receives a call from a prospective
customer. The inbound call is arbitrarily routed to the CSR, since IVR (Interactive
Voice Response) and CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) are unable to locate the
account.
The caller explains that he is the owner and CEO of a small company that develops
specialized software for the high-tech industry. He wants to use the CSRs company
as its sole provider.
The CSR first verifies that no account currently exists for the caller and then gathers
the following information about the callers company:
It has these three service locations:
The headquarters or administrative office is located in Newcastle, England.
A development office is based in York.
A sales office is located in Birmingham.
All services for the Northern England offices (Newcastle and York) will be billed
on a single invoice; however, each location will receive a statement.
The Birmingham site will receive its own invoice.
The caller wants a discount based on all the services he has at all three locations,
and he wants to receive a statement for all services.
Accounts
Based on this conversation, the CSR creates the account hierarchy shown in
Figure 2.
Based on this hierarchy, the CSR must set up the following to establish service for
the caller:
One customer account for the entire company
Two billing accounts (one for Northern England and one for Birmingham)
Three service accounts (one for Newcastle, one for York, and one for
Birmingham)
Figure 2. Account Hierarchy for Business Scenario
Accounts
Administrator Procedure for Accounts
One billing aggregator account for both billing accounts so that a complete
statement can be invoiced
Next, the CSR receives a call from a customer who wants to add broadband Internet
service to his account. The CSR accesses the customers account and updates the
information. While on the phone with the customer, the CSR checks the existing
infrastructure to verify that the service is available in the customers neighborhood.
Figure 3 shows the sequence of procedures an end user might perform to manage
accounts:
Administrator Procedure for Accounts
This section provides instructions for the following procedure:
To set up external organizations on page 38
Figure 3. Example of Sequence for Accounts
Accounts
Setting Up External Organizations (Administrator)
Setting Up External Organizations (Administrator)
Administrators must set up external organizations to populate the selection boxes
that appear in external organization fields throughout your Siebel application.
To set up external organizations
1 From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map >
Data Administration > Accounts/Orgs.
2 In the Accounts/Orgs list, create a new account record.
3 Clear the Account Flag check box.
4 Complete the other fields as necessary.
The external organization appears in the selection box that is displayed when an
end user enters an external organization field. External organization fields
include, but are not limited to, those listed in Table 6.
End-User Procedures for Accounts
This section provides instructions for the following procedures:
To create an account on page 39
To create an account hierarchy on page 41
To change a parent-child relationship on page 41
To review the hierarchy for an account on page 42
Table 6. Examples of External Organization Fields
Screen View Field
Accounts Equipment > Other Equipment Supplier
Accounts Infrastructure Owner
Premises Infrastructure > Account Detail Owner
Work Orders More Info Provider
Accounts
Creating an Account
To view the account hierarchy as an organization chart on page 42
To view a list of child accounts on page 42
To access the customer portal view on page 43
To access the account views on page 44
To view an agreement for an account on page 44
To view usage detail information on page 44
To add installed or planned equipment on page 45
To add telecommunications-related infrastructure on page 46
Creating an Account
An account forms the major link for entering detailed information about customers.
After adding accounts in Siebel eCommunications, end users can contribute
information for tracking customer service, processing requests, viewing
agreements, and so on.
To create an account
1 Navigate to the Accounts screen.
2 Click the More Info view tab.
Accounts
Creating an Account
3 In the More Info form, add a record and complete the necessary fields. To access
more fields, click the show more button in the form.
Some fields are described in the following table.
Field Comments
Account Class Distinguishes an account within an account hierarchy when
dividing accounts into billing or service accounts. The Billing
Account and Service Account Explorers filter on this field. Also,
the accounts available for association in the Quotes and Entry
views are determined by account classes.
For Account Class, select Customer if you are creating a
residential customer account.
For more information on account classes, see Accounts
Overview on page 29.
Account Team Determines who can access information about the account.
Address Address for the account. Enter a new address or associate an
existing one. In the dialog box for associating addresses, the
Premise check box indicates if the address is a premise.
Good Standing Determines if the account is blocked centrally, which excludes
certain activities from being performed. Note that this field is
different from account status.
Lock Assignment If you do not want Assignment Manager to run, check this field.
If you do not select Lock Assignment, Assignment Manager can
reassign this account to another team according to its territory.
For example, if you want to allow a commercial account with
three different locations to be handled by the same account
manager, even though one or two locations fall in another
account managers territory, do not select Lock Assignment.
Site Description of the location or function of the account, such as
headquarters or corporate or San Francisco.
Synonyms Allows you to refer to accounts (and their sites) in the way that
you prefer. For example, an account named A/B Products, Inc.,
might have the following synonyms: AB, A/B, and AB Products.
When you search for an account or enter an account in another
part of Siebel eCommunications, you can use a synonym instead
of the actual name.
Accounts
Creating an Account Hierarchy
Creating an Account Hierarchy
Creating an account hierarchy consists of creating child accounts and associating
them with a parent account. You must create the parent account before adding child
accounts. For instructions about creating an account, see To create an account on
page 39.
NOTE: For mergers or acquisitions, end users might need to move the entire
hierarchy under a new account. To do so, follow the procedure described in To
change a parent-child relationship on page 41. Be sure to associate the new parent
account at the top level. The new parent ID automatically cascades to its child
accounts, reflecting the change.
To create an account hierarchy
2 Select the account by doing one of these:
Perform a query in the list.
Make the appropriate selections from the Queries and Show drop-down lists
to define the account record set, and then select the account in the Accounts
list.
3 In the Accounts list, add a record for each child account and complete the
necessary fields.
4 In the Parent field, select the parent account from the dialog box.
To change a parent-child relationship
2 Select the child account.
3 In the Parent field, select a different parent account in the dialog box.
Accounts
Reviewing an Account Hierarchy
Reviewing an Account Hierarchy
End users can review the entire account hierarchy to check its structure.
To review the hierarchy for an account
2 From the Show drop-down list, select one of these options:
To review the hierarchy for billing or service accounts, select Billing Account
Explorer or Service Account Explorer, and then expand the subfolders in the
explorer tree.
The explorer view contains only those accounts for the designated account
class, including corresponding aggregator accounts.
To review all account hierarchies, select Account Management, and then
expand the subfolders in the explorer tree.
The explorer view displays accounts under the subfolders Accounts (shows
all child accounts, regardless of class), Billing Accounts, and Service
Accounts.
To view the account hierarchy as an organization chart
2 Select the account.
3 Click the Account Hierarchy view tab.
4 Scroll down to view the organization chart showing the account hierarchy.
To view a list of child accounts
3 Click the Account Hierarchy view tab.
4 Scroll down and select Account Org Hierarchy from the lower Show drop-down
list.
A list of child accounts appears.
Accounts
Accessing or Updating Account Information
Accessing or Updating Account Information
Siebel eCommunications allows end users to access the same account information
through different views. Specific views allow end users to find the information most
relevant to them, according to the procedure they need to perform at that moment.
Most views allow end users to record interactions with a customer and to update
the customers information, depending on the system setup and the end users
access rights.
From all views, end users can access information on billing, service, quotes,
agreements, contacts, and so on.
The end-user views are:
Customer portal view (call center agent). While talking to the customer, call center
agents generally need an overview of a customers account. The customer portal
view allows them to access the most commonly needed information in a
compact presentation.
Account views (sales representative). Sales representatives access the same
account information as call center agents, but they might do it through the
Account views. Each view displays a specific piece of account information. For
example, while preparing a report, a sales representative might want to review
the usage details or order history for an account. The sales representative does
not need the account overview information available in the customer portal
because she is normally not talking to the customer on the telephone while
reviewing information for her report.
To access the customer portal view
3 In the Accounts list, click the hyperlink in the Name field.
The Customer Portal view appears with several lists and forms summarizing the
account information.
Accounts
Monitoring Infrastructure, Equipment, and Usage
To access the account views
3 Click a view tab to access specific information for that account.
To view an agreement for an account
3 From the Show drop-down list, select Agreement Accounts Explorer.
4 In the explorer tree, expand the folder for the account.
Subfolders appear for the selected accounts agreements.
5 Expand the folders and select the specific agreement or subagreement to view.
End users can record and monitor the infrastructure, equipment, and usage
information for service customers.
NOTE: End users can either view the usage detail information or add
telecommunications-related infrastructure information through the Premises screen
as well.
To view usage detail information
Accounts
3 Click the Usage Detail view tab.
A list of services appears with usage history beneath it. The history displays
period-by-period or monthly usage information about the account and service
you selected.
4 In the Usage Detail list, select the service.
5 In the Usage History list, from the drop-down list, select the type of usage
information you want to view.
All options except Usage History and Usage Information display the information
in charts.
To add installed or planned equipment
3 Click the Equipment view tab.
Accounts
4 In the Equipment or Other Equipment list, add a record and complete the
necessary fields.
Use the Equipment list to record and view items supplied by your company and
the Other Equipment list to record and view items supplied by other companies,
including competitors and alliance partners.
You can also use these lists to record information about the equipment your
customers own or plan to acquire For instance, if your company offers digital
service to high-end digital set-top boxes, you might record information about the
premise equipment currently installed at a large apartment building or the future
wiring needs of a developer.
If you create separate service accounts for customers with multiple locations,
you can associate installed and planned equipment for a location with its
corresponding service account. If you use a single account to represent a
customer with multiple locations, you should associate the installed and
planned equipment for each of the customers various locations with the one
account for that customer.
Some fields in the lists are described in the following table.
To add telecommunications-related infrastructure
3 Click the Infrastructure view tab.
Field Comments
Install Date Date on which the equipment was installed, or the date on which
the customer plans to purchase the equipment.
Product Choices change dynamically depending on the type of equipment
you select. Most of the other fields are populated automatically
with data about the product you select.
Type Links equipment to type of service available for that equipment.
Accounts
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Accounts
4 In the list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Use this list to record information or attributes for the telecommunications-
related infrastructure at the sites to which you provide services. This may be
especially important at large industrial or commercial sites such as factories,
warehouses, and office buildings.
If you use multiple service accounts to represent a customer with multiple
locations, you can associate infrastructure items at each location with its
corresponding service account. If you use a single account to represent a
customer with multiple locations, you should associate the infrastructure items
at all the customers locations with the one account for that customer.
Some fields in the list are described in the following table.
For descriptions of other procedures related to accounts, see Siebel Bookshelf.
Service Item Additions to a Service or Billing Account
A service item is an instance of a service that your company provides to a particular
person. End users add services through the ordering module, and the steps involved
depend on your companys setup. For instructions, see Siebel Order Management
Guide Addendum for Industry Applications.
Field Comments
Attribute Values change dynamically with your selection in the Service Type field.
Owner Owner of the infrastructure item.
Value Specific information about the data in the Attribute field.
Accounts
Profiles
3
This chapter explains some basic concepts regarding profiles and provides step-by-
step instructions for creating them. It also describes the interrelationship among
profiles, business functions, and back-office systems.
Administrators, such as call center administrators, sales administrators, and sales
managers, will benefit from reading this chapter. It shows where customer service
representatives (end users) will enter information for these profiles and which
information might be critical for smooth integration with back-office systems.
After becoming familiar with the end-user procedures, you can customize the
software to fit your companys needs.
Profiles
Profiles Overview
Profiles Overview
A profile stores information required to perform a business function. For example,
a billing profile contains the information needed to invoice the customer for
products and services.
Profile Types
Table 7 describes the account profiles available within Siebel eCommunications.
Table 7. Account Profiles
Profile Comments
Address Profile and
MSAG Profile
Allows for validation of an address against a master street
address guide (MSAG) data source or other external
database.This helps provide an accurate address in the format
needed for external applications, such as an Emergency 911
database. You can also use the MSAG Profile as an example for
creating other profiles relevant to your company.
Billing Profile Captures the bill run characteristics needed to invoice the
customer for products and services. It is generally associated
with a billing account. An account has one billing profile that
can be used in multiple billing systems to produce a bill for the
account.
Customer Profile Contains information about an account when the customer is
an organization rather than a residential account. Much of the
profile information can be added automatically if your
company imports this data into Siebel eCommunications from
its billing software or customer information system.
Exemption Profile Contains the specific information related to any subsidies and
exemptions for which the customer may be eligible, tracks
when a subsidy or exemption takes place, and records the
receipt of supporting information.
Financial Profile Contains information used to perform a credit check on the
customer.
Fraud Profile Contains information about the fraud status of an account. It
allows end users to set fraud thresholds that, when exceeded,
trigger a fraud alert.
Profiles
Profiles Overview
NOTE: The order management module no longer uses the Service Profile view. If you
used the Service Profile view in the 6.x or earlier versions of Siebel
eCommunications, you want to use the new MSAG Profile view instead.
Profile Roles and Responsibilities
Table 8 lists the employees who generally perform the procedures related to profiles.
Loyalty Profile Contains information needed to predict customer churn,
estimate debt risk, and identify upsell and cross-sell
opportunities. When integrated with a third-party predictive
modeling package, it displays scores generated by that
software.
Site Profile Contains detailed information about an accounts location.
Statement Profile Records billing statement preferences, including number of
copies, media, and contact requesting the statement.
Table 8. End-User Roles and Responsibilities
Position Description
Customer Service
Representative
Focuses on call center activities, primarily responding to customer
inquiries and sales order requests
Understands account hierarchies, including the required key
information for a profile
Creates profiles for new customers, modifies and adds profiles for
existing customers
Sales
Representative
Focuses on outside sales and customer relationship management
Understands account hierarchies, including the required
information for profiles
Creates profiles for new customers, modifies and adds profiles for
existing customers
Table 7. Account Profiles
Profile Comments
Profiles
Business Scenario for Profiles
This scenario shows a sequence of procedures performed by a customer service
representative (end user). Your company may follow a different sequence according
to its business requirements.
This scenario continues the Business Scenario for Accounts on page 35. For a new
customer, the customer service representative (CSR) has already created an account
hierarchy, added a contact for the account, and entered an address for the account.
Now, for each service account in the hierarchy, the CSR wants to validate its address
against the MSAG (master street address guide) database or a similar external
database. This guarantees that the proper address format is sent to the Emergency
911 database when the service is provisioned.
After submitting each new address for validation, the CSR chooses the correct
match from the list the database sends back. She checks to see that the validated
field has been automatically updated to indicate the procedure was completed.
Next the CSR creates unique profiles associated with individual accounts. Each
profile stores information necessary to perform a business function.
Starting with the top-level parent account, the CSR creates a financial profile and a
statement profile:
The CSR creates a financial profile for the top-level parent account because the
customers company will have financial responsibility for all its accounts. The
financial profile includes all necessary information to perform a credit check on
the company.
The CSR also creates a statement profile for the top-level account because the
customer wants to receive a statement at the corporate level that summarizes all
charges for products and services.
The statement profile contains information, such as the address, number of
copies of the statement required, statement media type, frequency of statement,
contact person, and so on. Each statement profile is given a unique identifier
within the CSRs companys billing system. All the profile information is
required by the billing system so that the statement can be processed.
Profiles
The CSR then moves on to the billing subaccounts in the hierarchy and creates
separate billing profiles for those subaccounts. Each billing profile stores
information, such as the mailing address, contact, billing frequency, and debit or
credit card data for that account.
She then creates statement profiles for several subaccounts so that those offices can
receive informational statements for the amount of service used.
Next she creates an exemptions profile wherever subsidy and tax exemption
information applies. For example, a charitable organization will have a tax
exemption status. Exemption profiles can be created for any level of the account
hierarchy and are usually part of the initial account setup. They contain information
that can also be passed to the billing system.
Then she creates a site profile for each service account, which specifies how many
floors the site has, where equipment is located within the site, and so on.
Profiles
Figure 4 shows the accounts and profiles needed for the customers account
hierarchy discussed in the business scenario.
NOTE: Siebel eCommunications does not restrict how end users build hierarchies. If
you want to enforce certain rules, you must set the rules up within Siebel eBusiness
Applications. This diagram shows one recommended use of profiles for specific
account classes.
Figure 4. Business Scenario for Account Hierarchy and Profiles
Profiles
Figure 5 on page 56 summarizes the interrelationship among accounts, profiles, and
back-office systems.
NOTE: For simple residential customer accounts (those not separated into billing and
service accounts), all profiles are directly associated with the customer account and
not with subaccounts as shown in Figure 5 on page 56.
Profiles
Figure 5. Interrelationships Among Accounts, Profiles, and Back-Office Systems
Profiles
End-User Procedures for Profiles
End-User Procedures for Profiles
To create or update a profile on page 57
To add payment method information to a billing profile on page 58
To run a credit check on page 61
To validate an address on page 65
To revalidate an address on page 66
Creating and Updating a Profile
At each level in the account hierarchy, end users can create one or more account
profiles. However, administrators need to make sure the application supports the
specific type of profiles they want end users to maintain. For example, if the billing
application does not support exemption plans, there is no need to have an
exemption profile.
NOTE: This section pertains to all profiles except Address (MSAG) Profiles. For
instructions on working with MSAG profiles, see Creating and Updating an Address
Profile on page 64.
To create or update a profile
2 Select the account by doing one of these:
to define the account record set, and then select the account in the Accounts
list.
3 Click the Profiles view tab.
Profiles
About Billing Profiles
4 From the Show drop-down list, select a profile type.
5 In the forms or lists that appear for that specific profile, update the information
according to the step-by-step instructions found in the next sections.
The following sections describe the various profiles you can create using this
procedure and the unique fields required for each.
About Billing Profiles
End users create a billing profile to invoice the customer for products and services.
A billing profile contains such information as billing frequency, payment type, bill
media, bill type, and the customers email address for sending a bill electronically.
This information can be submitted to a back-office system, which may be the
master repository for this information.
A billing profile is generally associated with a billing account and may represent the
legally binding agreement between the customer and the service provider. It reflects
information from an external billing system.
Some fields in the Billing Profile form are described in Table 9.
To add payment method information to a billing profile
Depending on the payment method, add further information or update existing
information:
Table 9. Billing Profile Fields
Field Comments
Budget Billing Indicates if you require budget billing collection.
Email Bill To Email address to which the customer bill can be sent electronically.
External Billing
Account #
Populated when Siebel eCommunications executes a preconfigured
call to the back-office system, requesting an account number. The
account number generated by the billing system serves as the
billing systems primary reference for the life of the account.
Payment Method Payment method selection determines additional fields to update.
Profiles
About Customer Profiles
For Automatic Debit, Check, or Monthly Statement, enter information in the
Automatic Debit form.
For Credit, enter information in the Credit Card Payment form.
About Customer Profiles
End users create a customer profile for accounts when the customer is an
organization rather than a residential account. Much of the profile information can
be added automatically if your company imports this data into Siebel
eCommunications from its billing software or customer information system.
The customer profile allows end users to capture relevant customer information,
such as financial and sales information about the customer, and to record
information about the customers partners and competitors.
About Exemption Profiles
End users create an exemption profile to list subsidy and exemption information for
which the customer may be eligible. An exemption profile includes fields to track
when a subsidy or exemption takes place, and it records the receipt of supporting
information.
Field Comments
Category Card category of the payment card, such as Debit,
Procurement, or Credit card.
Block Indicates if a card is blocked. This is determined when
you run the credit card through a check using an
external system.
Block Reason Reason that a payment card is blocked. This block only
applies to one particular payment card. If the client has
several payment cards, another card can still be used.
Profiles
About Financial Profiles
Some fields in the Exemption Profiles form are described in Table 10.
End users create a financial profile to perform a credit check on the customer. To
verify a customers credit, Siebel eCommunications submits a request to a back-
office system or credit bureau. The back-office system or credit bureau sends back
a response that includes a credit score that determines if the customer is authorized
by internal credit policy to subscribe to services. These back-office systems perform
credit checks for incorporated businesses or individuals.
Table 10. Exemption Profile Fields
Section Field Comments
LIFELINE Effective Date Date when Lifeline assistance becomes effective.
Eligible Customers eligibility for Lifeline assistance.
Received Date Date when Lifeline documentation was received.
Renewal Date Date when Lifeline renewal is required.
DIRECTORY
ASSISTANCE
Select from the Status drop-down list and the
Effective Date calendar.
TAX EXEMPTION Identification numbers to show eligibility for a
Federal, State, County, or City exemption. Tax
Exemption number stores the number of the
certificate that is issued for temporary exemption
from tax.
TEL-ASSISTANCE Select from the Status drop-down list and the
Effective Date calendar.
Profiles
Some fields in the Financial Profiles form are described in Table 11. However,
different fields may appear according to the Account Type you selected (for
example, Residential as the Account Type).
To run a credit check
1 Set up the financial profile (see To create or update a profile on page 57 and
About Financial Profiles on page 60 for instructions).
Table 11. Financial Profile Fields
Section Field Comments
PROFILE Contact Last Name
and First Name
Contact for the account. This field is
automatically populated with the name of
the contact specified in the Primary Contact
field.
Corporate Number This may be a business number as provided
by a state, county, or city government.
Legal Entity Legal name of the company or corporation.
Tax Profile Code Displays the code from standard tax
categories that classify companies according
to their tax aspects. This information is
stored in an external billing or credit/tax
system.
BANK Customers bank information for the credit
check.
CREDIT RATING Last Update Date the last credit check was performed.
Rating Credit rating of the customer.
Source Group that did the most recent credit rating.
Update By The user ID of the person who last
requested a credit check.
Profiles
About Fraud Profiles
2 In the Financial Profile form, click Credit Check.
This sends the financial profile information to an external system, which reports
a credit rating. The credit rating typically is produced by a credit bureau and
indicates the customers ability to pay. It helps companies to assess their risk
before agreeing to credit terms with a potential customer.
NOTE: Credit check data for an incorporated business or an individual consists of
business name, billing address, corporate ID, and tax ID. For an unincorporated
business, credit check data includes name, social security number, and drivers
license.
About Fraud Profiles
A fraud profile contains information about the fraud status of a customer account.
End users can set up thresholds that, when exceeded, trigger the creation of a fraud
alert.
Some fields in the Fraud Profiles form are described in Table 12.
Table 12. Fraud Profile Fields
Field Comments
Credit Threshold Amount of credit the account is allowed.
Daily Threshold Threshold limit of the calls the customer can make.
Domestic Threshold Threshold limit for domestic calls the customer can make.
International Threshold Threshold limit for international calls the customer can
make.
Max Duration of Calls Maximum time that is allowed for a call.
Max Number of Calls Maximum number of calls that can be made in a given
period.
Max Value of Calls Cost of the calls, in the appropriate currency.
Profiles
About Loyalty Profiles
About Loyalty Profiles
The Siebel industry solution for communications and media contain a Loyalty
Profile.
The Loyalty Profile view contains scores generated by a third-party predictive
modeling application pertaining to customer accounts. These scores help predict
customer churn, project customer lifetime value, estimate financial risk, and
identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
The Loyalty Profile view also contains key data used as input to a predictive
modeling application. Some data, while residing in the Loyalty Profile view, is not
generated from within the Siebel applications.
A marketing administrator can develop loyalty and retention campaigns based on
these predictive scores.
About Site Profiles
A site profile contains detailed information about an accounts location. This
information can provide employees and partners with special delivery instructions
or with useful site information to help determine the type of service available.
Overflow Value Select the overflow allowed for the threshold limits in the
Calculator. Expressed as a percentage.
Sensitive Number Threshold Threshold limit for calls to sensitive numbers that the
customer can make. Sensitive numbers may include high-
priced calls such as those to 900 numbers.
Table 12. Fraud Profile Fields
Field Comments
Profiles
About Statement Profiles
Some fields in the Site Profiles form are described in Table 13. To access all fields,
click the show more button in the form.
About Statement Profiles
End users can create multiple statement profiles for an account if the billing system
supports this. Statement profiles contain billing statement preferences, including
number of copies, media, and contact requesting the statement.
Some fields in the Statement Profile form are described in Table 14.
Creating and Updating an Address Profile
End users can enter addresses without tight restrictions on formatting. However,
when provisioning services, tighter formatting restrictions may be required by a
back-office system.
Table 13. Site Profile Fields
Field Comments
Open Market Indicates if the site is either in an unregulated market or in a
regulated one.
Servicing Company Service company or local distribution company that provides the
service.
Supply
Characteristics
Specifies if the site is inside or outside your companys standard
service territory.
Table 14. Statement Profile Fields
Field Comments
Media Media on which the statement is to be transmitted.
Vendor Organization that prints or distributes bills.
Profiles
To guarantee proper formatting, the address needs to be validated against a back-
office data source. In Siebel eBusiness Applications, Address Profiles allow multiple
formats of one address to be stored. The MSAG (master street address guide) format
is available with the shipped product, but other formats can be added using Siebel
Tools. When setting up additional formats, use the MSAG Profile as an example.
Obtaining the proper address format is important in performing several key
business processes:
Validating service addresses or mailing addresses against an external standard
to guarantee a unique location for finding facilities, activating services, or
mailing materials through the Postal Service.
Determining the existing services and service provider at the address. This could
be a simple confirmation, although in the case of wireline service moves, a
variety of service information can be returned or exchanged between systems.
Forwarding updated information to an external database in the format necessary
to guarantee consistency within that database after a service is activated.
Each address profile format requires an external data source for validation. Your
company can either own the data outright or subscribe to a service that provides
the data.
NOTE: The MSAG format adheres to the Local Service Order Guidelines (LSOG) v5
specification.
After validating an address, end users might need to change some address fields. To
edit those fields, end users must revalidate the address, as described in this section.
To validate an address
3 Click the Address Profile view tab.
The Address list appears with the MSAG Profile form beneath it. The Address list
shows all the addresses associated with the account.
Profiles
4 In the Address list, select the address you want to validate.
5 Scroll down to the MSAG Profile form, add a record, and complete the necessary
information.
6 If the Validated field indicates N, open the Validated dialog box.
If the address validation is integrated with an external data source, opening the
Validated dialog box begins a search for possible addresses.
NOTE: This behavior differs from the default behavior of the shipped product,
which supports manual address validation. In the manual state, you can select
the Y option, at which point the MSAG Profile is marked as validated.
7 In the dialog box containing addresses, select the address that matches the
customers address.
NOTE: In the dialog box, you can also perform a query and enter criteria to
narrow the search for addresses.
8 In the MSAG Profile form, make sure the Validated field indicates Y.
After the address has been validated, the MSAG profile becomes read-only with
the exception of the Access Instruction and Descriptive Location fields. To
update the profile, the user must revalidate the address.
To revalidate an address
Follow the procedure for validating an address (To validate an address on
page 65), but click the ReValidate button after Step 4 on page 66 before
continuing with the procedure.
Contacts
4
A contact is someone about whom you or your company needs to keep business or
personal information. Siebel eCommunications helps you manage contacts and
associate contact data with accounts, opportunities, trouble tickets, or service
requests.
Customer service representatives and field service representatives are examples of
end users who might use contact management functions.
End users can use Siebel eCommunications to:
Record and track business and personal contact information
Create and track a list of activities for a contact
View a contact profile
View information about trouble tickets and service requests that are associated
with a contact
This chapter discusses these procedures and provides instructions for performing
them.
Business Scenario for Contacts
This scenario shows a sequence of procedures performed by a call center manager
(administrator) and call center agent (end user). Your company may follow a
different sequence according to its business requirements.
Contacts
Business Scenario for Contacts
A call center agent receives a call from a customer with a service problem. The
agent verifies that the caller is already registered as a contact by using a query on
the contacts name. The agent adds information to the customers contact profile
and provides the needed service by creating a trouble ticket without leaving the
Contacts screen. The agent then logs the activity. During the call, the customer
states an interest in purchasing a particular product, so the agent associates an
opportunity with the contact. After the call, the agent sends a follow-up email to
the customer to verify that the action was taken.
Figure 6 shows the sequence of procedures that an end user might follow to manage
contacts.
Figure 6. Example of Sequence for Contact Management
Contacts
End-User Procedures for Contacts
End-User Procedures for Contacts
To add a contact
To add information to a contact profile on page 70
To add an activity to a contact on page 70
To associate a contact with a trouble ticket on page 71
Adding a Contact
End users need to add contacts and verify that particular contacts are established
customers. Their company may choose to use passwords for an additional level of
verification.
End users can view all contact records that they create. If an end user adds a contact
to an account or opportunity and that account or opportunity has an associated
sales team, members of the sales team can also view the contact. In a contact
record, a sales team is also known as a contact access list.
To add a contact
1 Navigate to the Contacts screen.
3 In the More Info form, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
4 In the Account field, select one or more accounts in the dialog box.
If there is more than one account associated with this contact, designate one as
the primary account by selecting the Primary field for that account.
For more information about adding contacts, see Siebel Call Center User Guide.
Contacts
Modifying a Contact Profile
Modifying a Contact Profile
End users can modify a contact profile. Contact profiles are distinct from account
profiles.
To add information to a contact profile
2 Select the contact by doing one of these:
to define the account record set, and then select the contact in the Contacts
list.
3 Click the Profile view tab.
4 In the Profile form, complete the necessary fields.
Creating a Contact-Related Activity
End users can add, modify, or delete activities for a contact.
To add an activity to a contact
2 Select the contact.
3 Click the Activities view tab.
4 In the Activities list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Associating a Contact with a Trouble Ticket
End users can associate a contact with a trouble ticket. A similar method can be
used to associate a contact with a service request.
Contacts
Additional Procedures Related to Contact Management
For more information about Trouble Tickets, see Chapter 11, Service Requests and
Trouble Tickets.
To associate a contact with a trouble ticket
2 Select the contact.
3 Click the Trouble Tickets view tab.
4 In the Trouble Tickets list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
NOTE: If the trouble ticket status is set to Closed, some fields cannot be modified.
To modify these fields, drill down on the Ticket Id hyperlink, and in the Trouble
Ticket Detail form, change the status to Open or Pending.
For descriptions of other procedures related to contact management, see Siebel
Bookshelf.
Contacts and Opportunities
End users can use Siebel eCommunications to associate an opportunity with a
contact. For more information, see Siebel Sales User Guide.
Contact Correspondence
End users can use Siebel eCommunications to send email to a contact. If an email
application and Siebel Office are installed, the message content can be
automatically generated. For more information, see Siebel Sales User Guide.
Contacts
Agreements and Entitlements
5
Agreements and entitlements may be used by customer service representatives,
field service representatives, service managers, account managers, support renewal
agents, and contract administrators. Agreement and entitlement data is stored in
agreement and entitlement records that must be created, associated with other
records, revised, examined, and printed.
For further procedures and information related to agreements and entitlements, see
Siebel Call Center User Guide and Siebel Field Service Guide.
Agreements and Entitlements Overview
This section defines agreements and entitlements and discusses the relationship
between them.
Agreements Defined
An agreement is a legally binding document that defines the obligations to offer,
provide, or produce specific products or services over a set period of time for a
specific amount of money. A sale may require an agreement to detail and document
the sale transaction.
An agreement typically includes detailed descriptions of pricing, terms, limitations,
coverage, conditions, legal rights, processes, and guidelines. Agreements are often
revised to reflect changes in the company, a companys product lines, or in the
market.
Siebel eCommunications can manage complex commercial agreements as well as
simple residential agreements. Complex agreement can have multiple levels, each
with different terms, conditions, and discounts.
An agreement must be associated with one contact or at least one account.
However, agreements may be associated with multiple accounts.
Entitlements Defined
An entitlement defines the level of support to which a customer is entitled.
Examples of entitlements include response time metrics and service level metrics.
A metric is a type of provision (for example, response time) combined with a value
for that provision (for example, 2 hours).
Entitlements are associated with customers through their service-level agreements
(see Types of Agreements on page 74).
Agreement and Entitlement Relationships
The relationship between agreements and entitlements is as follows:
An agreement can have one or more entitlements.
An entitlement can have one or more metrics, accounts, contacts, or products.
The accounts and contacts associated with agreements may be different from the
accounts and contacts associated with an entitlement.
An agreement that is associated with an entitlement can specify that all contacts or
products should receive support under the entitlement. This provides blanket
contact service agreements and blanket product service agreements.
Types of Agreements
Many different types of agreements can be created in Siebel eCommunications,
including contracts, sales agreements, service agreements, service level agreements,
master service agreements, work orders, profiles, letters of understanding, letters of
intent, nondisclosure agreements, subcontractor work orders, price protections, and
support renewals. Some types of agreements are defined below:
A contract is an agreement that typically covers an ongoing relationship between
a vendor and a customer. A contract states what a vendor is contractually bound
to provide to a customer and what a customer is contractually bound to
purchase from a vendor. This type of agreement is legally binding and may
specify such things as products, services, discounts, terms, and entitlements.
A sales agreement is an agreement that is typically related to a specific sale. This
type of agreement specifies such things as base price, discounts, special rates,
rentals or leasing, and financing.
A service agreement is a type of agreement that defines a service relationship. It
spells out a customers rights to receive service, including the price, service
level, support requirements, maintenance, and warranty. Service agreements
have specific components that include:
Service Calendars. Specify the days and hours during which service will be
provided (for example, Monday to Friday and 9 to 5).
Quotas. Specify the amounts of service the customer can receive (for
example, number of phone calls allowed, number of on-site visits allowed,
and so forth).
Entitlements. Specify the accounts, contacts, and products that are covered,
as well as the metrics being used.
A service level agreement (also referred to as an SLA or a service support level) is
a type of service agreement that defines a customers entitlements and assets. A
service level is a quantitative measurement that is usually expressed as a
percentage. As examples, a service level may be the percentage of parts received
on time out of those requested, the percentage of asset uptime, or the percentage
of problems fixed within a required time frame. A service level agreement can
also be part of a larger service agreement.
Master Agreements and Subagreements
Small and uncomplicated transactions may only need a standard boilerplate
agreement. Larger transactions may need a customized collection of boilerplate
agreement sections. Sales involving multiple products and staggered delivery
schedules may need agreements with customized content within the customized
collection of agreement sections.
End users can create parent-child relationships among agreements. If, for example,
a large commercial account requires a master agreement and one or more
subagreements, end users can designate the main agreement as a master agreement
and then generate its associated subagreements. These agreements are linked to one
another as parent and child agreements.
Business Scenarios for Agreements and Entitlements
Data from which to build agreements comes from the agreement library in Siebel
eCommunications. An agreement library is a data repository developed by your
companys sales and legal organizations. It includes information such as
recommended and required text for agreement sections, answers to agreement
questions, sample cover letters, and sample executive summaries.
Agreements for commercial customers and residential customers may be managed
differently. To reflect this, this section presents two different business scenarios.
Business Scenario for a Commercial Customer
This scenario shows a sequence of procedures performed by an account manager
(end user). Your company may follow a different sequence according to its business
needs.
An account manager has been working with a commercial customer for the past
two months on an opportunity to supply 100 new subscriptions and rented handsets
to the customers office. Account information for the customer is already present in
Siebel eCommunications. Over the past two months, the account manager has
created and maintained the opportunity, quotes, and proposals in Siebel
eCommunications.
After reviewing several proposals and discussing different offerings and services,
the companys owner has accepted the account managers most recent proposal and
has requested a service agreement for the current quote.
First, the account manager creates an agreement record with basic information such
as account name, effective date, and a general description of products and services
to be covered. He next selects the appropriate terms to add to the agreement and
specifies contacts for this agreement. Next, he creates an order. When the order is
created, Siebel eCommunications associates the new service with the agreement.
The account manager then uses Siebel eCommunications to generate a physical
service agreement. Using a predefined agreement template that the account
manager selects, Siebel eCommunications automatically assembles sections from
the agreement library and adds the information the account manager entered for the
agreement record and its associated terms and contacts. Siebel eCommunications
then places the text in a Microsoft Word document. If necessary, the account
manager can manually edit the Word document to personalize it for the customer.
Finally, the account manager prints the finished service agreement for the owners
approval and signature.
Figure 7 shows the sequence of procedures that might be used to manage
commercial agreements.
Figure 7. Example of Sequence for Agreements (Commercial)
Business Scenario for a Residential Customer
representative (end user) at a local office. Your company may follow a different
sequence according to its business needs.
A residential customer with an existing service agreement decides to purchase a
wireless handset for her daughter. She visits an authorized dealer to complete this
transaction. The dealer looks up her agreement in the dealer's back-office system,
which is connected to Siebel eCommunications at Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The dealer then creates the order in Siebel eCommunications. When the order is
created, Siebel eCommunications associates the new service for the daughter with
the mother's agreement. When the order is complete, Siebel eCommunications
automatically updates the agreement with the new service. Finally, Siebel
eCommunications issues requests to the appropriate back-office applications to
provision the daughter's new wireless service.
Figure 8 shows the sequence of procedures that might be used to manage residential
agreements.
Figure 8. Example of Sequence for Agreements (Residential)
Administrator Procedures for Agreements and Entitlements
Administrator Procedures for Agreements and
Entitlements
To set up a template for the Auto Document feature on page 79
To verify the template appears as an agreement template on page 80
Setting Up Templates for the Auto Document Feature
(Administrator)
Administrators must set up agreement templates for the Auto Document feature to
work properly.
To set up a template for the Auto Document feature
1 From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Document
Administration > Proposal Field Mapping.
2 In the Business Objects list, add a record for the mapping information.
3 In the Business Object field, select Service Agreement.
4 Complete the necessary fields, and click Save.
5 From the Show drop-down list, select Proposal Templates.
6 In the Templates list, add a record and complete the necessary fields:
a In the Mapping Name field, select the name you just created.
b In the Default field, select the check box if you want to make this template
the default one.
NOTE: You must designate one agreement template as the default for the Auto
Document feature to work.
c In the Category field, select Agreement.
End-User Procedures for Agreements and Entitlements
d In the Template File Name, select the template file to use.
To verify the template appears as an agreement template
1 Navigate to the Agreements screen.
2 Click the Documents view tab.
3 In the Documents list, add a record.
4 In the Template drop-down list, verify that the template appears as an option.
End-User Procedures for Agreements and Entitlements
To add an agreement on page 80
To add terms to an agreement and generate a total on page 82
To create and print an agreement document on page 82
To associate an agreement with an order on page 84
To associate an agreement with a service item on page 84
To revise an agreement on page 85
To examine agreement details in the Explorer on page 86
Adding an Agreement
End users can add an agreement record to the Siebel eCommunications database.
To add an agreement
Adding an Agreement
Field Comments
Account Name of the account that the agreement covers.
If multiple accounts are associated with this agreement, the
primary account is visible in the form.
Agreement # Agreement number. Automatically generated, unique ID, which
cannot be changed or updated.
Approver A member of the agreement team who is authorized to approve
the agreement.
Effective The date on which the agreement becomes effective. This field is
for information only.
End The date the agreement expires.
Name User-assigned name for the agreement.
Parent Agreement If the current agreement is a subagreement or child agreement,
this field identifies the master or parent agreement.
PO# Purchase order number.
Revision Revision number of the agreement.
The value is set to 1 when the agreement is created and is
incremented whenever the agreement is revised.
Service Indicates that this is a service agreement.
Start The date on which agreement functionality begins.
Team People working on the agreement.
Valid Indicates that the agreement is valid.
This field is checked when entitlements are considered and when
preventive maintenance actions are initiated.
Vendor Name of vendor who originally sold the agreement.
Adding Terms to an Agreement and Generating a Total
Adding Terms to an Agreement and Generating a Total
Agreement terms include information such as payment method, shipping charges,
and credit card number. Agreement totals summarize the charges relating to the
service for which the agreement is created.
To add terms to an agreement and generate a total
2 From the Show drop-down list, select All Agreements.
3 In the Agreements list, select an agreement.
4 Click the Terms & Totals view tab.
5 In the Terms & Totals form, complete the necessary fields.
The agreement totals are calculated automatically and displayed in the Totals
form. The Products field and Services field amounts equal the Total Extended
Price for Products and the Total Extended Price for Services, respectively. The
Total field displays the total price for the shipment.
Creating and Printing an Agreement Document
End users can prepare and print an agreement for use as a contract document.
To create and print an agreement document
2 From the Show drop-down list, select All Agreements.
4 Click the Documents view tab.
Associating an Agreement with an Order
5 In the Documents list, click Auto Document.
Some fields are automatically populated.
NOTE: If you receive an error message about a template, check the template
setup. For instructions, see Setting Up Templates for the Auto Document
Feature (Administrator) on page 79.
6 If necessary, complete or modify the fields.
7 In the Documents list, click Generate Draft.
Siebel eCommunications assembles the standard agreement sections into a
Microsoft Word file according to the template you selected, and inserts specific
information from the current agreement record. A Microsoft Word application
window appears with the draft agreement displayed.
8 Edit and print the Word document, as necessary.
9 Save the Word document.
The document is automatically associated with the agreement record.
Associating an Agreement with an Order
End users can associate agreements with orders.
Field Comments
Draft Name Filename for the generated agreement.
Name Name of the agreement document record.
Template Template on which to base the agreement.
Associating an Agreement with a Service Item
To associate an agreement with an order
1 Navigate to the Orders screen.
4 In the Agreement Name field, select an agreement in the dialog box, and click
Submit.
Associating an Agreement with a Service Item
End users can associate agreements with service items. This allows companies to
track detailed agreements at the item level of a product bundle.
To associate an agreement with a service item
1 Navigate to the Quotes screen.
2 In the Quotes list, select an existing quote or add a record.
3 Drill down on the Name hyperlink.
4 In the Quote form, complete the necessary fields.
5 In the Line Items list, add a record and complete the necessary fields for the
service to be ordered.
6 In the Product field, select a product.
NOTE: The dialog box contains only those products with the Track as Asset field
selected in the Product Administration screen, More Info view.
7 Scroll down and click the Line Item Detail subview tab.
8 In the Line Item Detail form, select an agreement in the Agreement Name field.
9 In the Line Items list, click the Orders view tab.
10 Click the Sales Order or Service Order button.
Revising an Agreement
11 Complete the necessary fields in the order.
12 Drill down on the Order # hyperlink.
13 Verify that the line items from the quote appear.
14 In the Price List field, select a price list.
15 Submit the order to change the status to Open.
Revising an Agreement
End users create a revision to an agreement to add a new clause or term, or to
update information that already exists in the agreement. End users might do this,
for example, when a customer orders a new service that is not covered by the
existing agreement, or when their company modifies its discount rates.
When end users revise an agreement, Siebel eCommunications preserves a record
of each earlier version of that agreement. Consequently, revision records allow you
to track the history of any agreement. The original agreement is saved as revision
1. When an agreement is revised:
The respective revision number is increased by one.
The agreement name in the Name field is changed to name (.x) where x is the
revision number.
To revise an agreement
3 In the More Info form, click Revise.
Viewing Agreement Details in the Explorer
End users can use the hierarchical format of the Agreement explorer to view
agreements and examine associated information.
Viewing Agreement Details in the Explorer
To examine agreement details in the Explorer
2 From the Show drop-down list, select Explorer.
A data document appears for each of the parent-level agreements your company
has with its customers.
3 Expand the folder for the data document.
Subfolders appear for the selected agreements associated agreements,
entitlements, activities, notes, and products and services.
4 Expand the subfolder.
The individual records appear as a series of data documents below the subfolder
and as rows in the list.
5 Select a record.
The details of the record appear highlighted in the list.
Premises
6
The premises functionality of Siebel eCommunications is used by administrators,
such as distribution network planners, field service engineers, field service
operations managers, and managers of customer service representatives. It is also
used by end users, such as customer service representatives.
This chapter explains the concept of a premise and describes procedures you can
use to manage the creation and maintenance of premise records. It also describes
typical procedures that end users might use when working with premise records.
A premise is an address that identifies a physical location, such as a building,
apartment, land parcel, and so on, to which communications services can be
delivered. In Siebel eCommunications, a premise acts as a grouping of service
points.
A premise record stores the address of a building, apartment, or land parcel to
which your company offers communications services. Siebel eCommunications also
stores nonservice addresses that are associated with particular customers, such as
billing addresses outside the companys service territory. Nonservice account
addresses have a variety of uses, but premise records are specifically used to track
addresses at which a company might offer services. Premise records are never
deleted from the system and can therefore be used to track asset and service usage
even if the premise becomes unoccupied.
Premise records also track service points. A service point is an asset that is installed
at a particular service location and represents a network delivery point, such as a
phone jack.
For more information about setting up an asset, see Siebel Field Service Guide.
Premise information can be imported into Siebel eCommunications either
periodically in batches, using Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager, or through
real-time integration with a third-party application. Premise information can also be
entered manually.
Premises
Business Scenario for Premises
Every instance of a service delivered to a particular premise needs a unique
identifier, called a service item identifier. Most services are provided through a
physical network connection; for example, phone service is connected to a phone
jack, and a data access line is connected to a port on a switch. With physical
network connections, the Service Point is used as the service item identifier. Some
services, such as cellular phone services, do not require a physical network
connection. In these cases, a logical identifier, such as a telephone number or IP
address, is used as the service item identifier. Typically this identifier is
automatically assigned by an external system.
representative (end user), field service engineer, and field service operations
manager. Your company may follow a different sequence according to its business
requirements.
A customer calls your company to set up telephone service at a new house. The
customer service representative (CSR) who accepts the call creates an account for
the customer and orders the service and service point (phone jack). The ordering
process initiates an activity that directs field service engineers to the site. The field
service engineers then connect the house to the telephone network, creating a
service point for the phone jack.
A field service operations manager changes the status of the account address record
to a premise in Siebel eCommunications. She also associates the service point with
the premise. In addition, she enters some information related to the premise as a
note and then associates an electronic file, which contains a hookup wiring
schematic, with the premise. Finally, the field service operations manager creates
an activity to notify the network planning department that the local network needs
maintenance.
Six months after the occupant moves in to the house, she calls to report static on
the telephone line. The CSR who accepts the call first verifies the caller and the
callers location. Before creating a service request, he views general information
about the premise and looks to see if there are any existing service requests
associated with the premise. The CSR notes that static has been reported several
times before and creates a service request documenting the repeated problem.
Premises
Figure 9 shows the sequence of procedures that might be used to set up a residential
premise.
Figure 9. Example of Sequence for Initial Setup of a Residential Premise
Premises
Administrator Procedures for Premises
Figure 10 shows the sequence of procedures that might be used to maintain a
residential premise.
Administrator Procedures for Premises
To add a premise before the customer account exists on page 91
To add a premise when the customer account already exists on page 92
To add a service point and associate it with a premise on page 92
Setting Up Premise Records (Administrator)
Only administrators can set up premise records. End users can view premise
information, view information associated with premises, and associate other
records with premises.
About Adding a Premise Record
There are two ways to add a premise record. The method you use depends on if an
account for the customer who will occupy the premise has already been
established.
Figure 10. Example of Sequence for Maintenance of a Residential Premise
Premises
Setting Up Premise Records (Administrator)
You can add a premise record before the customer who will occupy a premise is
known. In this case, there is no existing customer account with which to associate
the premise. When a customer moves into the premise and requests service, the
association is made automatically when the premise is added to the account
addresses.
If an account for the customer who will occupy a new premise has already been
established, a new address will be added to the account addresses. Once the address
is validated as a premise, the address is flagged as a premise by an administrator.
Creating a Premise
Use one of the following procedures to create a premise.
To add a premise before the customer account exists
1 From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Data
Administration > Premises.
The All Premises list appears with the More Info form beneath it.
2 In the form, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Field Comments
Bill Group ID of the billing system batch or group to which the premise belongs.
Buildings Total number of buildings at the premise.
Floors Total number of floors at the premise.
Read Route Name of the meter reading route to which the premise belongs.
Read Sequence Number that identifies the sequence in which the meters at the
premise are read.
Premises
Registering a Premise Hookup (Administrator)
To add a premise when the customer account already exists
Administration > Addresses.
The Addresses list appears with the Address form beneath it.
2 In the Addresses list, select an Address.
3 In the Address form, check the Premise field.
4 From the Show drop-down list, select Premises.
The All Premises list appears with the More Info form beneath it.
5 In the list, select the new premise and complete the necessary fields in the form.
For a description of some fields, see the table in To add a premise before the
customer account exists on page 91.
Registering a Premise Hookup (Administrator)
Premises can be associated with one or more service points.
To add a service point and associate it with a premise
Administration > Premises.
2 In the All Premises list, select a premise.
3 Click the Service Points view tab.
4 In the Service Points list, add a record.
The Service Points dialog box appears with a list of service points that are not
associated with any premises.
5 In the dialog box, select an existing service point or click New to create a new
service point.
Premises
End-User Procedures for Premises
6 In the Service Points list, complete the necessary fields.
End-User Procedures for Premises
To associate an activity with a premise on page 94
To look up a premise on page 94
To view service point information for a premise on page 94
To view usage history for a service point on page 95
To view a service request associated with a premise on page 96
To add a service request for a premise on page 96
To add infrastructure information to a premise on page 97
Associating an Activity with a Premise
End users can create an activity and associate it with a premise to:
Remind themselves of procedures related to a premise that they must perform.
Communicate procedures related to a premise that other members of the
organization must perform.
Field Comments
Location Description of the location of the service point.
Product Associate a product with this service point. Only products in
which the value in the products Type field is Service Point and
Service Type is not null are available for selection.
Removal Date Date on which the service point is removed from the premise.
Premises
Verifying the Premise
To associate an activity with a premise
1 Navigate to the Premises screen.
Verifying the Premise
End users can verify the premise that a caller is referring to by looking up the
premise record.
To look up a premise
For a description of some fields, see the table in To add a premise before the
customer account exists on page 91.
Viewing Service Point Information
End users can view service point information for the premise.
To view service point information for a premise
Premises
Viewing Usage History
3 Click the Meter Points view tab.
The Meter Points list displays service point information for that premise. Some
fields are described in the following table.
Viewing Usage History
End users can view usage history for a service point associated with a premise. This
is useful for resolving billing inquiries from customers who have recently moved
into the premise. Usage history is displayed as data in lists and charts. End users
can view usage history through either the Premises screen or the Accounts screen.
For instructions for viewing usage history through the Accounts screen, see
Chapter 2, Accounts.
NOTE: Usage data may reside in an external data repository and be viewed in Siebel
eCommunications if that type of integration has been set up.
To view usage history for a service point
3 Click the Meter Points view tab.
4 In the Meter Points list, drill down on the Service Point hyperlink.
5 In the Service Point Services list, select a record.
6 In the Usage History list, select the information you want to view from the drop-
down list.
Field Comments
Product Name of the product that is the service point.
Service Type Populated automatically based on selection of Product.
Premises
Viewing Service Requests for a Premise
Viewing Service Requests for a Premise
End users can view service requests associated with a premise.
To view a service request associated with a premise
3 Click the Service Requests view tab.
Two Service Requests lists appear. The upper list displays accounts and the
lower list displays service requests.
4 In the upper list, select an account.
5 In the lower list, select a service request.
6 To view more detailed information about the service request, drill down on the
SR Number field.
Adding a Service Request for a Premise
End users can add a service request by creating a new service request in the Service
Request view of the Premises screen.
To add a service request for a premise
Two Service Requests lists appear. The upper list displays accounts and the
lower list displays service requests.
Premises
Adding Infrastructure Information
5 In the lower list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Adding Infrastructure Information
End users can create a record containing infrastructure information that is
associated with a premise through an account.
To add infrastructure information to a premise
3 Click the Infrastructure view tab.
Two Infrastructure lists appear. The upper list displays accounts and the lower
list displays infrastructure.
Field Comments
Owner Person handling the service request.
Priority Ranking to help you prioritize service requests internally. Describes the
response your company gives to the service request.
The Priority ranking does not have to be the same as the severity.
Severity Severity of the service request or impact on the customer. Describes the
seriousness of the problem.
The Severity ranking does not have to be the same as the priority.
SR Number Unique, system-generated number that identifies the service request.
Premises
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Premises
5 In the lower Infrastructure list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
For descriptions of other procedures related to premises, see Siebel Bookshelf.
Caller Verification
When receiving an inbound call, end users first verify and locate the caller. For more
information about verifying and locating a caller, see Siebel Call Center User Guide.
Customer Accounts
When a new customer requests service from your company, end users will need to
create an account for the customer. For more information about creating a customer
account, see Chapter 2, Accounts.
Sales Orders
When a customer requests a new service, end users must create a sales order. For
more information about creating a sales order, see Siebel Order Management Guide
Addendum for Industry Applications.
Premises and Attachments
At any time, end users can store additional information relating to a premise in the
database by associating an electronic file with the premise record. For directions for
associating an attachment with a record, see Fundamentals.
Field Comments
Attribute Changes dynamically according to the value selected in Service Type.
Owner Customer or account that owns the infrastructure item.
Value Information about the data in the Attribute field.
Premises
Premises and Notes
At any time, end users can store additional information relating to a premise in the
database by adding a note and associating it with the premise record. For directions
for associating a note to a record, see Fundamentals.
Premises
Assets
7
Asset records are used by customer service representatives (CSRs), field service
representatives, service managers, account managers, support renewal agents, and
contract administrators. The procedures described in this chapter are primarily used
by customer service representatives.
Asset data is stored in records that can be created, associated with other records,
revised, examined, and printed. For more information about assets, see Siebel Field
Service Guide.
Assets Overview
An asset is a product or product component that has been purchased by a customer
and installed at, turned on at, or delivered to a customer site. An asset can be a
physical product or a service product. Examples include phone pagers, phone
handsets, telecommunications services, and Internet services that are active at
specific customer sites. An asset is tracked at an asset number level. An asset has
attributes, a configuration, and a location.
Siebel eCommunications uses both the asset number and product name to track the
asset. It is the combination of these two fields that makes an asset unique within
Siebel applications. Therefore, the same asset number can be shared by different
products. For example, a phone jack and a DSL connection can have the same asset
number for different products.
Asset management and tracking are important parts of help desk systems and field
service applications. Siebel eCommunications tracks purchases, allows you to
create an asset before purchase, and allows you to track the assets location. The
asset management system records the location of serialized products and product
components, and tracks the movement of these assets from inventory locations to
customers or employees.
Assets
Business Scenario for Assets
Assets cannot be deleted, so even inactive services remain in the dialog boxes for
selection.
End users can use these methods to create or modify assets:
Manually in the Assets screen.
Manually in the Activity Part Tracker view, provided the product is serialized.
This would typically be done by a field service agent. For more information, see
Siebel Field Service Guide.
Automatically using the Siebel eCommunications applications order
management process. For more information, see Siebel Order Management
Guide Addendum for Industry Applications.
New or modified asset records can also be automatically received from an
integrated third-party asset management system. For more information, see Siebel
Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.
This scenario is an example of a sequence performed by a customer service
A CSR processes an order for a telecommunications service, which creates an asset
for the root service and each component. The customer also orders a backup
system, for which the CSR creates an asset. The CSR associates the backup system
asset with the customers service as a related asset.
At a later time, the customer calls to report a product failure. Noticing that the
service has components, the CSR views their details to identify the failed
component.
The CSR reviews the history of services for the asset and sees nothing out of the
ordinary. The CSR creates a service request for the problem and associates it with
the asset component.
Assets
A few weeks later, the customer calls again with a suggestion for improving the
service. The CSR enters a change request and associates it with the customers
asset.
For another customer, the billing system shows an exception (usage data beyond the
normal range). This alerts the CSR, who contacts the customer to verify the usage
before determining if the service should be suspended.
Figure 11 summarizes the sequence an end user might use to manage asset
information in Siebel eCommunications:
Figure 11. Example of Sequence for Assets
Assets
End-User Procedures for Assets
End-User Procedures for Assets
To create an asset on page 104
To associate a related asset with a primary asset on page 105
To view hierarchical information for an asset on page 106
To create a transaction for an asset on page 106
To view components associated with an asset on page 107
To add a service request associated with an asset on page 107
To add a change request associated with an asset on page 108
To view service point and service information on page 109
Creating an Asset
End users can create assets and enter asset information in Siebel eCommunications,
as shown here.
NOTE: Assets can also be created through the order management module. For
instructions, see Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry
Applications.
To create an asset
1 Navigate to the Assets screen.
The Assets list appears with the More Info form beneath it.
Assets
Associating Related Assets with a Primary Asset
2 In the form, add a record and complete the necessary fields. To access more
fields, click the show more button in the form.
Associating Related Assets with a Primary Asset
End users can associate one or more assets with another asset and designate their
relationships, such as backup or option. An asset with which other assets are
associated is a primary asset.
To associate a related asset with a primary asset
2 From the Show drop-down list, select All Assets.
3 In the Assets list, select the primary asset.
4 Click the Relationships view tab.
5 In the Relationships list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Viewing Hierarchical Information for an Asset
End users can view the hierarchical information for assets, including the
relationships of assets and their components.
Field Comments
Account Account associated with the asset.
Asset # Populated with a default number generated by Siebel
eCommunications. Accepts any string consisting of 100 or fewer
characters.
Qty Quantity of the asset.
Serial # Displays either the serial number set in the service point or the service
ID from the order.
Assets
Creating a Transaction for an Asset
To view hierarchical information for an asset
2 From the Show drop-down list, select Assets Explorer.
3 In the explorer tree, select an asset.
4 Expand the asset branch to display subsidiary records.
When you click the asset name in the explorer tree, the Assets list highlights the
asset selected in the explorer and displays further details on the right side of the
view. The fields are the same as those in the Assets lists in the All Assets or My
Assets view.
Creating a Transaction for an Asset
An asset transaction captures the movement of components of an asset, such as
installation or part replacement. End users can create transactions for an asset.
To create a transaction for an asset
3 In the Assets list, select the asset.
4 Click the Transactions view tab.
5 In the Transactions list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Field Comments
Asset # Number of the subasset (component) associated with the
transaction (for example, the part installed in the main asset).
Transaction Date and time of the transaction.
Assets
Viewing Components Associated with an Asset
Viewing Components Associated with an Asset
End users can view components that are associated with an asset. Components or
subassets are generally set up when the asset is created.
NOTE: Components are automatically added, as appropriate, when you add some
transactions in the Transactions view.
To view components associated with an asset
3 In the Assets list, select an asset.
4 Click the Components view tab.
The Components list displays information about the components.
Adding a Service Request Associated with an Asset
End users can add service requests associated with an asset.
To add a service request associated with an asset
Assets
Adding a Change Request Associated with an Asset
5 In the Service Requests list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Adding a Change Request Associated with an Asset
End users can add change requests associated with an asset by either creating new
change requests or associating existing change requests with an asset.
To add a change request associated with an asset
4 Click the Change Requests view tab.
5 In the Change Requests list, add a record and do one of the following:
Select an existing change request to associate with the asset.
Add a new change request and complete the necessary fields.
Field Comments
Last Name Name of the account contact.
Owner Owners of the service request. You can select more than one
owner.
SR # Unique, system-assigned number for the service request.
Field Comments
Area General product area where the change request has occurred.
Owner Person assigned to deal with the change request.
Assets
Viewing Service Points and Services
End users can view the services associated with each service point and usage details
for each service, but they cannot add a service point from this view. For instructions
for adding a service point, see To add a service point and associate it with a
premise on page 92.
Services are associated with service points when a CSR submits a New or Modify
order for a service. When a CSR submits a Disconnect order, the service is made
inactive. For more information, see the chapter about the employee use of order
management in Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry
Applications.
To view service point and service information
3 Click the Service Point Services view tab.
4 To see various types of usage information for a service:
a In the Service Point Services list, select the service.
b In the Usage History view, from the drop-down list, select an option.
Priority Priority assigned to fixing this problem.
Subarea Kind of product addressed by this change request.
Substatus Indicates if this change request has been assigned to an
employee for resolution.
Type Type of change request.
Field Comments
Assets
Opportunities
8
An opportunity is any lead that could result in a sale. Some opportunities are
generated from campaign leads, while others are created by your companys sales
representatives. Through Siebel eCommunications, sales representatives can
manage their sales opportunities for business and residential customers.
Specifically, they can:
View a list of all opportunities in the database or only those opportunities
specifically assigned to them
Create new opportunities
Track the status of an opportunity through the sales cycle, from creation to
closure
Update information about opportunities as they move through the sales cycle
Generate quotes based on opportunities
Use opportunity profiles to record additional information and review customer
responses to predefined questions
Administrators involved with opportunities will benefit from reading this chapter. It
describes how your CSRs create and update opportunities. After becoming familiar
with the end-user procedures, you can customize the software to fit your companys
needs.
Opportunities
Business Scenario for Opportunities
For information about hierarchical products or multiple price types with recurring
and nonrecurring fees, see these guides:
Product Administration Guide
Pricing Administration Guide
Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications
This scenario shows a sequence of procedures performed by a sales representative
(end user). Your company may follow a different sequence according to its business
requirements.
While attending a trade show, a sales representative meets the director of a small
company, who expresses interest in purchasing several products from the sales
representatives company. She asks the prospective customer to complete a form
and assures him that she will be in contact with specific product pricing.
Back at her office, the sales representative creates a new account and enters contact
information in Siebel eCommunications. Then she creates a new opportunity and
associates it with this new account.
As part of the opportunity description, she indicates the probability for the sale,
estimates the potential revenue for the sale, and designates the stage of the sale.
Next she associates products with the opportunity and specifies product
information, such as the product type, quantity, and pricing.
To evaluate some preliminary quotes for the prospective customer, she creates
several quotes. For products containing subproducts, she selects the top-level
product name to ensure proper revenue calculations. She also reviews setup fees
and recurring fees for the products.
She calls the prospective customer to set up a meeting to go over her quotes. During
that conversation, she determines that he might also be interested in another
product that her company offers. She updates the product information and notices
that the additional product triggered an overall discount generated by the rules
established through Siebel eCommunications.
Opportunities
The prospective customer also mentions that his company is expanding to an
additional location. The sales representative enters that location as a related site for
the same opportunity.
After confirming the meeting for the next day, she hangs up and continues her
preparations for the meeting. While doing so, it occurs to her that another customer
might be able to take advantage of the same discount. She enters that customer
account as a partner for the opportunity.
Opportunities
Figure 12 summarizes the sequence an end user might use with opportunities in
Siebel eCommunications:
Figure 12. Example of Sequence for Opportunities
Opportunities
End-User Procedures for Opportunities
End-User Procedures for Opportunities
To create an opportunity on page 115
To associate an opportunity with an account on page 116
To associate a product with an opportunity on page 117
To create a quote for an opportunity on page 117
To create a profile for an opportunity on page 119
To associate a related site with an opportunity on page 120
To associate a partner with an opportunity on page 120
Creating an Opportunity
An opportunity is generated in the Campaigns screen or is added manually. Every
time end users identify an opportunity, they should create a new record.
To create an opportunity
1 Navigate to the Opportunities screen.
Field Comments
Channel Distribution strategy this opportunity plays in your organization.
Expected Value Automatically populated when you select Probability and Revenue
Amount fields.
Opportunities
Associating an Account with an Opportunity
Associating an Account with an Opportunity
End users can associate an opportunity with an account. This allows them to track
all important information for a customer.
To associate an opportunity with an account
2 Select the opportunity by doing one of these:
Filter on the fields to narrow the list of Opportunities you want to work with.
Then make the appropriate selections from the Queries and Show drop-down
lists to define the opportunity record set, and then select the opportunity in
the list.
3 In the Opportunities list, in the Account field, select an account in the dialog
box.
Associating a Product with an Opportunity
End users can associate products with an opportunity and provide customers with
detailed information on the products that interest them.
Primary You are assigned as primary for opportunities you create. Only
managers can change the Primary field for a sales team member.
Probability % Probability of completing the sale.
Revenue Expected revenue in specific currency.
Sales Team Sales team member associated with the opportunity.
Source Source of the data. Source Type field reflects the source type
associated with this selection.
Field Comments
Opportunities
Creating a Quote for an Opportunity
To associate a product with an opportunity
2 Select an opportunity.
3 Click the Products view tab.
4 In the Products list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
5 In the Product field, select a product in the dialog box.
End users can create a quote for an opportunity, view all quotes for an opportunity,
or update an opportunity with product information taken from the Quotes view.
For the updating opportunity feature to work, certain conditions must be met:
In the Product Administration view, the number of occurrences must be > 0 for
the product.
For more information, see Product Administration Guide.
In the Price List list in the Quotes screen, all products end users can associate
with the opportunity or quote must be defined as Price List line items.
In the Line Items view of the Quotes screen, the Extended Price of the quote line
item must be > 0.
In the Quotes list in the Opportunities screen, the Price List must be selected (see
To associate a product with an opportunity on page 117).
If these conditions are not met, Siebel eCommunications cannot generate revenue
line items for the Opportunity. The revenue will not be accurate until a quote is
configured and the opportunity is updated from it.
To create a quote for an opportunity
Opportunities
3 Click the Quotes view tab.
4 In the Quotes list, click Auto Quote.
A new quote is created with default values in some fields.
5 In the Price List field, select a price list.
6 Complete the necessary fields for the new quote.
7 In the Quotes list, drill down on the Name hyperlink.
The Quote form appears with the Line Items view beneath it.
8 In the Line Items list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
9 To modify line item details:
a Scroll down and click the Line Item Detail subview tab.
NOTE: Administrators specify much of the product information through the
Product Administration screen. When the products are added to the quote as
line items, default product information is populated for some line item fields.
Field Comments
Extended Price Calculated by multiplying the net price by the quantity.
MRC Subtotal Monthly recurring charge.
NRC Subtotal Nonrecurring charge.
UofM Unit of Measure depends on price type. For a one-time fee, value is
for each unit. For recurring fees, value indicates time period, such
as per month or per quarter.
Opportunities
Creating a Profile for an Opportunity
b To adjust a discount, edit the Disc %, Disc Amount, and Disc Price fields in
the Line Item Detail form.
NOTE: For further information about line item details, see Siebel Order
Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications.
10 In the Quote form, click the Update Opportunity button.
This adds revenue line items to the opportunity for every one-time or recurring
charge for every product.
Creating a Profile for an Opportunity
End users can launch a call script that helps them define qualifying information
about an opportunity. The script guides them through a series of questions to
answer.
After answering the questions, end users can later analyze the information. For
example, they can use charts to see which opportunities qualify as part of their
target market or they can use queries to find opportunities that match specific
criteria.
To create a profile for an opportunity
3 Click the Profile view tab.
4 In the Profile form, click Script to launch the wizard.
5 Answer the questions in the script.
Opportunities
Associating a Related Site with an Opportunity
Associating a Related Site with an Opportunity
The Opportunity Account defines the primary account related to the opportunity.
End users can associate accounts for satellite offices or subsidiaries to the
opportunity.
To associate a related site with an opportunity
3 Click the Related Sites view tab.
4 In the Related Sites list, add a record.
5 In the Account field, select an account in the dialog box.
Associating a Partner with an Opportunity
The Opportunity Account field defines the primary account related to the
opportunity. When additional accounts are involved in an opportunity, end users
add them to the opportunity as partners.
For an account to appear in the list of partners, it must have a check mark for the
Partner field in its account form.
To associate a partner with an opportunity
3 Click the Partners view tab.
4 In the Partners list, add a record.
5 In the Add Partner dialog box that appears, select an account.
The dialog box lists only accounts that have the Partner field selected in the
Accounts screen, More Info view.
Opportunities
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Opportunities
Additional End-User Procedures Related to
Opportunities
For descriptions of other procedures related to opportunities, see the Siebel
Bookshelf.
Account and Contact Creation
When adding a prospective customer to the database, end users often first create an
account and enter contact information. For more information about creating a
customer account, see Chapter 2, Accounts. For more information about entering
a contact, see Chapter 4, Contacts.
Opportunities
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Opportunities
Billing
9
This chapter describes the procedures for handling customer inquiries about their
invoices, usually performed by customer service representatives (CSRs). Using
Siebel eCommunications, CSRs can retrieve past invoices, current unbilled charges,
and other invoice details. CSRs can also arrange payment plans, record payments
against an outstanding balance, or request adjustments to the customers records in
the event of an incorrect bill.
Administrators involved with billing will benefit from reading this chapter. It
describes how your CSRs access billing information and update billing accounts.
After becoming familiar with the end-user procedures, you can customize the
software to fit your companys needs.
Billing processes are integrated with an external billing system that Siebel
eCommunications accesses to retrieve information, such as the customers last
statement. That information is stored temporarily in Siebel database tables.
Performance of the billing screens depends on both the configuration and speed of
retrieval from the external billing system. Configurators can set up Siebel
eCommunications so that all messages are sent and received from the back-office
application in real-time or batch mode. The results of these messages can also be
stored in Siebel eCommunications database tables, allowing CSRs to resolve them
in real-time.
Your company is responsible for performing the integration of Siebel
eCommunications with billing systems. For detailed information, see Overview:
Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume I.
For instructions on setting up profiles that are used to run credit ratings, record
billing preferences, or store tax exemption information, see Profiles on page 49.
Billing
Business Scenario for Billing
9Business Scenario for Billing
This scenario shows a sequence of procedures performed by a CSR (end user). Your
company may follow a different sequence according to its business requirements.
A CSR at a telecommunications company receives a call from a business customer.
The customer has just received his December invoice for wireless services and
believes that his company was overcharged for international phone calls.
The CSR verifies the caller's identity and then accesses the customer's billing
information, primarily maintained in an external billing system. With the Siebel
front-office system, the CSR can access billing information as if it were stored
locally.
The customer has a specific question about various international calls in his
December invoice. The CSR looks at a list of recent invoices and finds the December
statement. She brings up an image of the invoice and notices that the customer has
been charged $300 for international calls.
The CSR wants to discuss the individual international calls to confirm the company
made these calls. She first retrieves the customer's billing details information for the
December billing period. She then sorts the calls by rate plan (that is, international)
and informs the customer that all calls were made to the same number in Frankfurt,
Germany. She also checks to see the other invoices for other months, and sees if
this international calling pattern is consistent. It is not. The customer realizes that
an employee has been making calls without the customer's knowledge.
The CSR mentions to him that he can request a block placed on his account for all
international calls by creating a fraud profile for his account. The customer asks to
check his calls for the current month to make sure that there will not be unexpected
surprises in the next month's invoice. The CSR reviews the unbilled charges and
reports that there are no unusual charges.
While looking at the invoice details, however, she notices that the customer is being
charged a city tax, from which his company should be exempt. The customer has
been paying this amount for the last few months. To reimburse him for the error,
she can enter an adjustment request against either the entire invoice or specifically
against a line item in that invoice. She decides to associate the request with the
invoice line item in this case.
Billing
She enters the amount of the tax and explains the reason for the request. She then
submits the adjustment for processing by the external billing system. If it is
accepted, this adjustment amount will be credited immediately to the balance of the
account of the customer and will be printed on the customers next invoice.
Before she forgets, she accesses the customer's exemption profile and makes a note
that he should be exempt from city tax, so that he will not be incorrectly charged
in the future.
The customer would also like to pay his outstanding balance. The CSR finds the
most recent invoice, which is for the month of January. She creates a payment
against the invoice, enters the customer's credit card information, and submits the
payment for processing by the external billing system.
Before hanging up, the customer has one last request. He would like to start
receiving invoices by email. The CSR goes to his billing profile, selects the
appropriate Bill Media, and enters his email address. The customer thanks him for
his time and hangs up.
After lunch, the CSR receives a phone call from another customer, who needs to
arrange a payment plan. His recent invoice was considerably higher than normal,
so he wants to spread out the payment over the next three months. After the CSR
verifies that his credit is still good, she enters the payment arrangement request and
notes the special circumstances. The external billing system processes the request
and approves it in a few moments. The CSR informs the customer that his request
has been accepted and that he should look for that additional amount in the next
three invoices.
Billing
Figure 13 summarizes the sequence of procedures an end user might use to update
billing information in Siebel eCommunications:
Figure 13. Example of Sequence for Billing
Billing
End-User Procedures for Billing
End-User Procedures for Billing
To access the Billing Portal view on page 131
To access the Invoice views on page 131
To view invoice line items on page 131
To view the image of an invoice on page 132
To view the invoice history on page 132
To record a payment at the account level on page 133
To record a payment against one invoice on page 134
To record a payment against multiple invoices on page 135
To view the payment history on page 135
To view usage details on page 135
To view unbilled charges on page 136
To request an adjustment to an entire invoice on page 138
To request an adjustment to a line item in an invoice on page 138
To view the outcome of an adjustment request on page 139
To view the history of adjustment requests on page 140
To record the customers decision about the adjustment outcome terms on
page 140
To request a payment arrangement on page 141
To view the outcome of a payment arrangement request on page 142
To view the history of payment arrangements on page 142
To record the customers decision about the payment outcome terms on
page 143
Billing
Accessing or Updating Billing Information
To request a duplicate invoice on page 144
To update a billing profile on page 144
Siebel eCommunications allows end users to access the same invoice information
through different views. By selecting one view or another, end users can find the
information most relevant to them, according to the procedure they need to perform
at that moment.
Most views allow end users to record interactions with a customer and to update
the customers information, depending on the system setup and the end users
access rights.
From these views, end users can access information on billing, such as the account
balance, invoice history, payment history, and adjustment history.
NOTE: The procedures described in this chapter contain the most frequently used
method for performing each task, including which view to access, although other
methods may exist.
End-User Views
The end-user views are:
Billing Portal view (call center agent). The Billing Portal view summarizes the
billing information that a call center agent would most likely need to review
while talking to a customer. It also makes it easy for call center agents to handle
the most common transactions associated with invoices.
The Billing Portal view serves as a starting point for most customer inquiries.
Among other tasks, the Billing Portal views allow call center agents to:
Review the account status, such as the balance, delinquency information,
and pending financial transactions (credit and debit) that have not yet been
applied to the balance.
Billing
View the most recent invoices of a customer and drill down to access detailed
information about an invoice.
View the history of payments and adjustments.
This is useful if customers claim that they have already made a payment and
that the balance is not correct.
Access the usage history of different services that the customer has so that
unexpected hikes can be explained to the customer.
Begin transactions, such as recording payments or adjusting balances.
Table 15 describes the information available in the Billing Portal view.
Table 15. Billing Portal View
Views Description
Account Displays account information that corresponds to the Accounts
screen, More Info view. End users can edit this information.
Account Balance Displays balance information for the account. Retrieves this
information from an external billing system. Information is read-
only.
Pay button. Takes end users to the Invoices screen, Payments
view, where a payment has been created to settle the entire
account balance.
Refresh button. Updates the information with the most current
data.
Invoice History Displays information from the Invoices screen. Information is
read-only.
Invoice # hyperlink. Takes end users to the Invoices screen, Line
Items view.
Payment History Displays the payment history for the account. Information is
read-only.
Payment # hyperlink. Takes end users to the Invoices screen,
Payments More Info view, Invoices subview, where they record
payments.
Billing
Invoices views (call center agent). The Invoices views allow call center agents to
view all bill details. These views are generally accessed to reply to customer
complaints regarding a specific charge on the bill. The Invoices views also allow
call center agents to start transactions, such as adjusting an invoice, recording a
payment against the invoice, requesting a bill duplicate.
Sequence for Accessing Billing Information
To resolve customer inquiries, end users first locate the billing account, where they
generally record payments. For most other transactions, end users record
information at the invoice level.
End users can access the most recent invoice or retrieve past invoices. They can
view invoice details, such as line items, after selecting the invoice. In addition, they
can view the image of an already-sent invoice bill in HTML format.
NOTE: Some customers have a consolidated billing account for a number of service
items. Siebel eCommunications allows end users to view charges associated with a
billing account, service account, or parent account. For more information about
accounts and subaccounts, see Chapter 2, Accounts.
Adjustment History Displays a subset of the information from the Invoices screen,
Adjustment Requests view. Information is read-only.
Request # hyperlink. Takes end users to the Adjustment
Requests view, Line Items subview.
Additional Info Billing Profile hyperlink. Takes end users to the Accounts screen,
Profiles view, Billing Profile form.
Usage Detail hyperlink. Takes end users to the Accounts More
Info form, Usage Detail view.
Unbilled Charges hyperlink. Takes end users to the Account
More Info form, Unbilled Charges view.
Table 15. Billing Portal View
Views Description
Billing
To access the Billing Portal view
2 In the Accounts list, select the account.
3 Click the Billing Portal view tab.
The Billing Portal view appears with several lists and forms summarizing the
billing information for that account.
To access the Invoice views
1 Navigate to the Invoices screen.
2 From the Show drop-down list, select All External Invoices.
When you select All External Invoices, the Invoices list displays the bills that
have been generated by an external system. The information found in the
Invoices list (header information) is generally stored in the Siebel database.
However, due to the large volume of data, it is not recommended that your
company store the Invoice Line Item information in the Siebel database, but
instead access that data in real time through integration.
NOTE: When you select All Invoices from the Show drop-down list, the Invoices
list displays all invoices, including external invoices.
3 In the Invoices list, perform a query in the Bill To Account field for the account
name.
The Invoices list displays all invoices for that account, sorted by invoice number.
4 In the Invoices list, select the invoice you want to view.
5 Click a view tab to access specific information for that account.
To view invoice line items
Billing
3 In the Invoices list, drill down on the Invoice # hyperlink.
The Invoices form appears with the Line Items list beneath it. From the Invoices
form, end users can also click the Pay, Adjust, or Usage Detail buttons to
continue with a transaction.
4 If the service item does not appear in the list, perform a query.
For example, enter the telephone number in the Number Called field.
To view the image of an invoice
3 In the Invoices list, select an invoice.
4 Click the Invoice Image view tab.
The invoice appears as a graphic at the URL that the administrator set up. For
instructions on setting up this feature, see Setting Up the Invoice Image Feature
(Administrator) on page 146.
To view the invoice history
2 In the Accounts list, select an account.
The Invoice History list displays the most current records for the invoice.
4 If the information does not appear in the Invoice History, perform a query to
access the correct records.
5 Drill down on the Invoice # hyperlink.
6 In the Line Items list, click the view tab for the information you want to view.
Billing
Entering Payment Against an Outstanding Balance
End users can enter a payment for a customer at either the account level or the
invoice level, according to the accounting system used at their company:
Account-Level Payments. Associate the payment against the account when the
companys accounting method applies the payment against the account balance
(Balance Forward).
Invoice-Level Payments. Associate the payment against one or more invoices
when the companys accounting method applies the payment against the bill
balance (Open Item).
To record a payment at the account level
4 In the Account Balance form, click Pay.
The Payments list appears with the account information already filled in for the
new record.
5 In the field, select a method for payment.
6 In the Payments list, complete the necessary fields.
Field Comments
Payment # System-generated number.
Payment Date Automatically populated.
Payment Amount Automatically populated based on the account and account
balance. Status must be set to Open to enter the amount.
Otherwise, it is read-only.
Status Set automatically to Open. End users can edit this record as long
as the Status is not Submitted.
Billing
7 In the More Info form, complete additional fields, if necessary. The fields
displayed depend on the Payment Method selection you made.
EFT. Deducts payment from the customers bank account.
Credit Card. Charges payment to the customers credit card.
Reference. Captures payment details that were made at a third-party location,
such as post offices or banks.
8 Click Submit.
To record a payment against one invoice
3 In the Invoices list, click Pay.
A new record is created with the payment number, amount, date, and status
already populated.
4 Continue with Step 5 of To record a payment at the account level on page 133,
and perform the remaining steps in the procedure.
Field Comments
Bank Account # Customers bank account number.
Account Holder Name Name under which the customers bank account is
registered.
Bank Branch Reference number of the specific branch of the
customers bank.
Field Comments
Location Location where the payment was made.
Reference # Reference number of the payment.
Billing
Viewing Usage Details
To record a payment against multiple invoices
2 In the Accounts list, select the account.
NOTE: End users can also begin this procedure from the Billing Portal view. For
information, see Table 15 on page 129.
3 Click the Payments view tab.
4 In the Payments list, add a payment.
5 Drill down on the Payments # hyperlink.
The Payment Detail form appears with view tabs beneath it.
6 Click the Invoices view tab.
7 In the Invoices list, enter the amount that you want to apply to each invoice in
the Payment Amount field.
8 In the Payment Detail form, enter the total amount.
To view the payment history
The Payment History list displays the most current records for the account.
Viewing Usage Details
End users can view usage details for an invoice.
To view usage details
Billing
Viewing Unbilled Charges
4 Scroll down to the Additional Info list.
5 Drill down on the Usage Detail hyperlink.
The Usage Detail list appears with the Usage History list beneath it.
6 In the Usage History list, select the data you want to view from the drop-down
list.
Viewing Unbilled Charges
End users can view unbilled charges for an account. The total of all unbilled charges
appears in the Billing Portal view, but for a breakdown of the charges, end users can
follow this procedure.
To view unbilled charges
3 Click the Unbilled Charges view tab.
The Unbilled Charges view displays the charges incurred since the last invoice.
Field Comments
Next Invoice Date Date the next statement will be generated.
NonRecurrng Charge Current periods nonrecurring charges.
Billing
Overview of Adjustment Requests
Overview of Adjustment Requests
End users must sometimes adjust customer bills for various reasons, such as to
apply credit to compensate for an overcharge. The adjustment process consists of
these procedures:
1 Request an adjustment for an invoice or invoice line item.
2 View the request outcome.
3 Record the customers decision to accept or reject the outcome to the request.
The next sections describe these three procedures for adjusting an invoice.
For more information about integrating the billing component with an external
billing system, see Chapter 14, Defining an Integration Workflow Process.
Requesting an Adjustment
End users can associate the adjustment request with the entire invoice or with a
specific line item in the invoice. Because the billing component is integrated with
an external billing system, an adjustment request is sent to the external billing
system, which processes the request.
Recurring Charges Current periods recurring charges.
Surcharges Current periods taxes and surcharges.
Total Charges Displays the total unbilled charges for the current period.
Recurring charges+Nonrecurring Charges+Taxes and
Surcharges=Total Charges.
Field Comments
Billing
Requesting an Adjustment
To request an adjustment to an entire invoice
5 In the More Info form, click Adjust.
The Adjustment Requests form appears with some information populated.
6 Verify the fields and complete any necessary fields.
To request an adjustment to a line item in an invoice
4 Click the Line Items view tab.
The Adjustment Requests form appears with the Line Items list beneath it. In the
Adjustment Requests form, the Status defaults to Open and the Type defaults to
Credit. The list displays a history of adjustment requests.
Billing
Viewing an Adjustment Request Outcome
5 Select the line item you want to adjust, and click Adjust.
A new record is created with some information already populated.
6 Complete any necessary information, such as the reason for the Adjustment, and
click Submit.
Siebel eCommunications processes the request and populates the fields with the
results.
Viewing an Adjustment Request Outcome
Typically, the account adjustments and payment arrangement plans are determined
in the back office, either manually or through a system. The back-office system then
sends the outcome of the request to Siebel eCommunications.
End users can view the request outcome as well as view the history of adjustment
requests.
To view the outcome of an adjustment request
The Invoices form appears with the view tabs beneath it.
5 Click the Adjustment Requests view tab.
6 In the Adjustment Request list, review the Amount Approved field.
These fields show the external billing systems response to the bill repayment
plan request. The Status field is updated automatically.
Billing
Recording a Customers Decision About Adjustment Outcome Terms
To view the history of adjustment requests
2 Select an account.
3 Click the Adjustment Requests view tab.
The Adjustment Requests list displays all adjustment requests that exist for the
account.
Recording a Customers Decision About Adjustment
Outcome Terms
After consulting with the customer, end users can record the customers decision to
accept or reject the outcome terms.
To record the customers decision about the adjustment outcome terms
4 Click the Adjustment Request view tab.
5 In the Adjustment Requests list, select the request record.
6 In the Customer Decision field, select information to indicate the customers
decision to accept or reject the outcome terms.
NOTE: If your companys policy does not require a customer decision regarding a
bill adjustment outcome, the customer decision fields may not be available.
Billing
Overview of Payment Arrangement
Overview of Payment Arrangement
End users can request a special arrangement if a customer is unable to pay for
services when a bill payment is due. The customer may request a payment plan or
a deferral of payment. In response, your company can approve the request, reject
the request, or propose its own terms. The response may depend on factors such as
corporate policy, customer credit history or credit worthiness, and longevity of the
customers association with your company.
The arrangement process consists of these procedures:
1 Request a payment arrangement for the customer.
3 Record the customers decision about the outcome.
The next sections describe these three procedures for arranging a payment plan.
For more information about integrating the billing component with an external
billing system, see Chapter 14, Defining an Integration Workflow Process.
Requesting a Payment Arrangement
Because the billing component is integrated with an external billing system, a
payment arrangement request is sent to the external billing system, which processes
the request and generates a response.
To request a payment arrangement
4 Click the Payment Arrangements view tab.
Billing
Viewing the Outcome of a Payment Arrangement Request
5 In the Payment Arrangements list, add a record and enter information for the
request.
The external billing system processes the request and populates the Payment
Arrangements Outcome view at the bottom of the screen.
Viewing the Outcome of a Payment Arrangement Request
Siebel eCommunications receives the outcome of the request, which is generated by
the external billing system.
To view the outcome of a payment arrangement request
5 Scroll down to the Payment Arrangements Outcome form to review the external
billing systems response to the bill repayment plan request.
To view the history of payment arrangements
Field Comments
Number of Installments For a single-payment deferral plan, this is 1. When you click
on the Installment Amount field, the amount is
automatically generated.
Installment Amount When you click on this field, the amount is generated
according to the Original Amount Due and Number of
Installment data.
Billing
Recording a Customers Decision About Payment Arrangement Terms
5 In the Payment Arrangements list, select Payment Arrangements or Payment
Arrangements Details from the drop-down list.
6 If the information does not appear in the Payment Arrangements list, perform a
query to access the correct records.
Recording a Customers Decision About Payment
Arrangement Terms
After consulting with the customer, end users can record the customers decision to
accept or reject the payment plan that their company is offering.
To record the customers decision about the payment outcome terms
5 Scroll down to the Payment Arrangements Outcome form and select information
in the Customer Decision field to indicate the customers decision to accept or
reject the terms.
NOTE: If your companys policy does not require a customer decision regarding a
bill repayment plan outcome, the customer decision fields may not be available.
Requesting a Duplicate Invoice
Occasionally, a customer might request a copy of an invoice.
Billing
Updating a Billing Profile
To request a duplicate invoice
4 Click the Duplicate Request view tab.
5 In the Duplicate Request list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
6 To send the invoice to a different mailing address:
a In the Duplicate Request list, select Duplicate Bill Request Details from the
Show drop-down list.
b In the Address field, associate another address.
Updating a Billing Profile
When billing a customer, Siebel eCommunications integrates information, such as
exemption information or discounts, that is stored in profiles.
To update a billing profile
4 Scroll down to the Additional Info form.
Field Comments
Address Address to send the duplicate bill. The City, State, Zip, and Country fields
are automatically populated when you select the address.
Comments Specific directions or descriptions about the duplication process.
Billing
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Billing
5 Drill down on the Billing Profile hyperlink.
6 In the Billing Profile form, update the information.
For further information about profiles, see Chapter 3, Profiles.
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Billing
For descriptions of other procedures related to billing, see the Siebel Bookshelf.
Caller Verification
When receiving an inbound call, end users first verify and locate the caller. For more
information about this process, see Siebel Call Center User Guide.
Administrator Procedures for Billing
To generate credit, fraud, and usage information on page 146
To set up the invoice image feature on page 146
Generating Credit, Fraud, and Usage Information
(Administrator)
Siebel eCommunications contains a view for administrators that simulates an
external billing system. From that view, you can create credit, fraud, and usage
details for a billing account. End users do not have access to the view.
CAUTION: Siebel eCommunications billing administration views are part of the Billing
Management option. Exclusively for testing purposes, these views are used to
simulate an external billing system and therefore should not be used in a production
environment. For this reason, they are not part of release documentation.
Billing
Setting Up the Invoice Image Feature (Administrator)
To generate credit, fraud, and usage information
1 From the application-level menu, select View > Site Map > Billing Data
Administration > Billing Data Administration.
2 In the Billing Accounts list, select the account.
3 Click the Credit, Fraud, or Usage view tabs.
4 In the appropriate list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
End users can request the image of a customers bill from the external billing
system, if that feature has been set up by the administrator. The image is returned
in HTML format and is not stored within the Siebel application.
To set up the invoice image feature
1 From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Integration
Administration Screen > Host Administration.
2 In the HTTP Host list, add a record and complete this information:
3 From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Integration
Administration Screen > Symbolic URL Administration.
4 In the Symbolic URL list, select the BillStatement record.
NOTE: In the Name field, run a query for BillStatement. BillStatement is the name
of the control defined in Siebel Tools Reference.
Field Comments
Name Name of your invoice host. This is an identifier and should match the
Virtual Name.
Virtual Name Name of your invoice host.
Billing
5 In the Bill Statement record, complete this information:
6 Restart the application.
The image now points to the specified URL.
Field Comments
Fixup Name InsideApplet will display the image within the current applet.
OutsideApplication will display the image in a new popup window.
Host Name Name of your invoice host. Select the name entered in Step 2.
URL URL for the bill image to appear.
Billing
Work Orders
10
The Work Orders module in Siebel eCommunications helps service providers to
manage the components needed to activate a service for a customer. A work order
is an action item that must be completed to implement an order. When an order is
submitted, the back-office order processing system divides it into one or more work
orders, based upon criteria, such as service provider or due dates. A work order has
most of the components found in a standard order, but it deals specifically with
those items that are required for the provisioning process.
By creating and tracking work orders separately, you can access the status of a sales
order. This is important because work orders are executed by back-office systems,
such as the provisioning system. Tracking the status of an order gives you up-to-
date access to the information related to the order and can therefore convey it to a
customer at any time, either through inbound contact or through outbound
workflow-initiated activities.
The Communications Work Orders module works in conjunction with the
Communications Order Processing module. It uses much of the work conducted
during the order process and provides screens that allow you to manage work
orders.
Business Scenario for Work Orders
Work Orders
Business Scenario for Work Orders
A customer service representative (CSR) has just completed an order for a customer,
requiring three mobile phones, two pagers, an Internet connection, and an addition
to their local service (voice mail). The order that the CSR created contains at least
seven line items: one for each of the mobile phones, two for pagers, one for the
Internet connection, and one for the local service. The CSR has given a quote for
the order to the customer, who has accepted it and asked that the order be placed.
In the Order Line Items view, the CSR submits the order to the provisioning system.
Since your company is a reseller of communications services (in this example), the
action of submitting the order will create three work orders, based on the service
provider for each of the line items. The following list shows the work order
allocation:
Three mobile phonesprovided by a wireless services company
Two pagersprovided by a wireless services company
An Internet connectionprovided by an Internet service provider
Local service (voice mail)provided by the local phone service provider
The work orders were created based on the service provider for each of the line
items associated with the order. In this example, there are three unique providers:
a wireless services provider, an Internet service provider, and the local phone
service provider. The work order is separated into three separate work orders, which
are then submitted to the various providers for activation.
A week later, the customer calls to check on the status of his order because he has
not received his equipment. His call is directed to a different CSR, who is able to
search through his company account to find any open orders. When the CSR has
found the most recent order, he can use the hyperlink to find the specific work
orders associated with the order. When he does this, he notices that each of the
work orders is complete, except the one for the mobile phones and pagers. When
he drills down into that order, he finds some notes and activities indicating that the
particular pager ordered by the customer is on back-order. The estimated delivery
date is two days from now. The CSR adds an activity to the work order to indicate
that the customer wants to be notified by email when the status of the order has
changed to complete.
Work Orders
End-User Procedures for Work Orders
Figure 14 shows the sequence of procedures that an end user might follow to
manage work orders.
End-User Procedures for Work Orders
To create a work order on page 151
To associate an activity plan with a work order on page 152
To create an activity for a work order on page 153
To create line items to be allocated for the order on page 153
To add a line item action on page 154
To add a work order term on page 154
Creating a Work Order
End users can create work orders.
To create a work order
1 Navigate to the Work Orders screen.
Figure 14. Example of Sequence for Work Orders
Work Orders
Adding an Activity to a Work Order
more fields, click the show more button in the upper right corner of the form.
Adding an Activity to a Work Order
End users can create an activity and associate it with a premise to:
Remind themselves of procedures related to a premise that they must perform.
Communicate procedures related to a work order that other members of the
organization must perform.
Activity plans consist of a list of activities to be completed to resolve a problem. If
an appropriate activity template exists, end users can select the template to
populate their activities list with a defined set of activities. Then end users can
customize the list, if necessary.
To associate an activity plan with a work order
2 In the Work Orders list, select a work order.
3 Click the Activity Plans view tab.
Field Comments
Account Master account for this order. Account # is automatically filled
when a value is entered in this field.
Address Address of the account.
Last Name Contact for the order.
Order The sales order associated with the work order.
Provider Vendor for the work order. Clicking the select button in this field
launches a Pick Vendor dialog box.
Work Orders
Creating Work Order Line Items
4 In the Activity Plans list, add a record.
5 In the Template field, select an Activity Template.
To create an activity for a work order
Creating Work Order Line Items
End users can create line items and line item actions to be allocated for a work
order.
To create line items to be allocated for the order
3 Click the Line Items view tab.
4 Scroll down and click the Line Detail subview tab.
Work Orders
Adding Work Order Terms
5 In the Line Detail form, add a record and complete the necessary fields. To
access more fields, click the show more button in the upper right corner of the
form.
To add a line item action
3 Click the Line Item Actions view tab.
4 In the Line Item Actions list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Adding Work Order Terms
End users can add a work order term.
To add a work order term
Field Comments
Product When you select a product, you are selecting a line item from the
associated Service Order. The Action, Due Date, UoM, Price and
Status fields are automatically populated with the information
from the Order Line Item view.
Ship to Last Name An existing contact can be selected in the Ship to Contacts dialog
box, or a new contact can be added. The Ship to First Name field
is automatically populated when you enter a value in this field.
When you complete this field, the City, State, ZIP Code, and
Country fields are automatically populated.
Address An existing address can be selected in the Ship to Addresses
dialog box, or a new address can be added. When you complete
this field, the City, State, ZIP Code, and Country fields are
automatically populated.
Work Orders
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Work Orders
3 Click the Terms view tab.
4 Scroll down to the second Terms form, and complete the necessary fields.
For descriptions of other procedures related to work orders, see the Siebel Bookshelf.
Work Orders and Attachments
At any time, end users can store additional information relating to a work order in
the database by associating an electronic file with the work order record. For
directions for associating an attachment with a record, see Fundamentals.
Field Comments
Freight Terms Terms describing how to ship the order.
Payment Terms Terms describing how the customer will pay.
Return To Return address for order items.
Status Status of the order.
Work Orders
Service Requests and Trouble Tickets
11
Siebel eCommunications service requests and trouble tickets are primarily used by
customer service representatives (CSRs) and their managers, as well as network
operations center (NOC) agents.
Service requests and trouble tickets are database records that are used to manage
problems with equipment or general requests for service. This chapter is mostly
about trouble tickets, but it also explains the differences between trouble tickets and
service requests and tells you where you can find more information about service
requests. This chapter:
Guides you in setting up features that help to automate trouble ticket
management
Describes procedures typically used by end users to create, monitor, and close
trouble tickets
Describes procedures that you can use for overall management of trouble tickets
Service Requests and Trouble Tickets Overview
Service requests and trouble tickets are managed through the Service Requests and
Trouble Tickets screens.
Service requests and trouble tickets perform similar functions. The main differences
are:
Trouble tickets functionality supports parent-child relationships
Trouble tickets are typically used to record and track problems with the
functioning of services and networks, whereas service requests are typically
used to record and track general customer problems and requests. Examples of
general problems and requests are billing problems, requests for new
equipment, and requests for billing statements.
Service Requests and Trouble Tickets Overview
Initiation of Service Requests and Trouble Tickets
Service requests and trouble tickets may be initiated in several ways:
A customer calls the call center to report a problem with the phone line.
A network communications management system that is integrated with Siebel
eCommunications automatically creates a trouble ticket record in the Siebel
eCommunications database.
Agents can reassign service requests and trouble tickets to other groups or
individuals for resolution. Alternatively, agents can break a service request or
trouble ticket down into different activities, which can be assigned to different
owners. In this case, the agent can monitor progress towards completion of the
activities and close the service request or trouble ticket.
Creation of Service Requests and Trouble Tickets
Service requests and trouble tickets can be created within Siebel eCommunications
or moved into Siebel eCommunications by:
Customers using Siebel eService
Customers and partners using an Automated Call Distributor (ACD)
Call center agents responding to phone calls or email from customers
NOC agents responding to network problems
Automated network communications management systems that are integrated
with Siebel eCommunications
Trouble Ticket Referral
Trouble tickets can be referred from Siebel eCommunications to trading partner
software through integration with an electronic bonding gateway, using Siebel
eBusiness Application Integration (eAI).
Additional Information on Service Requests
The remainder of this chapter describes trouble ticket management. For more
information about service requests, see Siebel Field Service Guide and Siebel Call
Center User Guide.
Business Scenario for Service Requests and Trouble Tickets
Business Scenario for Service Requests and Trouble
Tickets
representative (end user) and a workflow manager (administrator). Your company
may follow a different sequence according to its business requirements.
A customer service representative (CSR) receives a call from the owner of a software
company. He is phoning from his mobile phone and explains that he has no dial
tone on his office phone. The CSR verifies the customers service configuration and
identifies the specific phone line to which he is referring.
The CSR creates a trouble ticket and attempts to use the problem resolution
capabilities in Siebel eCommunications to resolve the customers problem. The CSR
is unable to solve the problem and passes the trouble ticket to the Network Services
Group. The CSR ends the call and creates a follow-up activity on the trouble ticket.
Two minutes later, the CSR receives a broadcast message indicating that there is a
circuit break that is affecting customers in a particular exchange. The CSR looks up
the network-reported problem for the circuit outage and finds the specific trouble
ticket. The trouble ticket details indicate that a construction crew sliced through a
cable that carries network traffic for the exchange. The estimated repair time is five
hours.
The CSR performs a search in Siebel eCommunications to find all open trouble
tickets that have a service item equivalent to the affected exchange. The search
produces a list of 15 trouble tickets, including the network-reported trouble ticket.
The CSR associates each of the 14 customer-reported trouble tickets with the one
network-reported trouble ticket for the following reasons:
The 14 customer-reported problems are related to one network outage.
Your companys Siebel administrator has configured the Siebel applications so
that all the customer-reported troubles are resolved when the network-reported
trouble is resolved.
The CSR assigns the network trouble ticket for the cable break to a technician in the
Repair and Maintenance department and receives a message from the on-site
maintenance crew that the cable has been repaired and tested and is fully
operational. The technician creates a series of notes in the network trouble ticket,
indicating the resolution, and closes the trouble ticket.
When the technician closes the parent trouble ticket, the child trouble tickets are
not automatically closed since it may be necessary to verify that each customers
problem has been fixed. Because your administrator has configured it to do so,
Siebel eCommunications determines that the trouble ticket for the customer
described above can be closed. It then sends a text message to the customers
mobile phone notifying him of the resolution.
At the end of the day, the manager examines all of the trouble tickets generated that
day.
Figure 15 shows the sequence of procedures that end users might follow to manage
trouble tickets.
Figure 15. Example of Sequence for Trouble Tickets
Administrator Setup for Service Requests and Trouble Tickets
Administrator Setup for Service Requests and Trouble
Tickets
You can create scripts and automate the assignment of trouble tickets, thereby
making the CSRs job easier.
You can use Siebel SmartScript to provide scripts that guide CSRs as they collect
information about trouble tickets. For more information about creating scripts,
see Siebel SmartScript Administration Guide.
CSRs or other qualified personnel can manually assign ownership of a trouble
ticket to themselves, to another employee, or to a group. With the appropriate
setup, Siebel Assignment Manager can be used to give the CSR the option of
automating the assignment.
For more information about setting up Siebel Assignment Manager (including rules,
criteria, workload, employees, positions, and territories), see Siebel Assignment
Manager Administration Guide.
End-User Procedures for Service Requests and Trouble
Tickets
To create a trouble ticket on page 163
To assign a trouble ticket manually to a person or group on page 164
To associate a child trouble ticket with existing parent trouble tickets on
page 165
To verify the entitlement associated with the trouble ticket on page 166
To associate an activity plan with a trouble ticket on page 167
To add an activity to a trouble ticket on page 168
To close a trouble ticket on page 168
To conduct a customer survey on page 169
Overview of Trouble Ticket Creation
To send out a customer satisfaction survey on page 169
To analyze trouble tickets data using charts on page 170
Overview of Trouble Ticket Creation
To create a trouble ticket, end users must follow this sequence:
1 Create a new trouble ticket record.
2 Assign the trouble ticket to a qualified CSR, if necessary.
3 Verify the customers entitlements.
4 Enter the service details of the trouble ticket.
5 Set up the trouble ticket as a child trouble ticket, if necessary.
The next sections describe each procedure.
Creating a Trouble Ticket Record
End users can create a trouble ticket record.
To create a trouble ticket
1 Navigate to the Trouble Tickets screen.
Assigning a Trouble Ticket to a Person or Group
more fields, click the show more button in the upper right corner of the form.
Assigning a Trouble Ticket to a Person or Group
If end users are unable to resolve trouble tickets themselves, they may need to
assign them to another qualified CSR or to a group.
In general, trouble tickets can be assigned in these ways:
Batch assignment. Siebel Assignment Manager can assign many trouble tickets at
a scheduled time. For more information, see Siebel Assignment Manager
Administration Guide.
Dynamic assignment. Siebel Assignment Manager can automatically assign
trouble tickets at preset intervals. For more information, see Siebel Assignment
Manager Administration Guide.
Interactive assignment. Siebel Assignment Manager is invoked manually from the
menu button in the More Info view, as described in the next procedure.
Manual assignment. Users select the owner in the Trouble Tickets screen, as
described in the next procedure.
To assign a trouble ticket manually to a person or group
2 Select the trouble ticket by doing one of these:
Field Comments
Last Name The last name of the person reporting the problem.
Owner Person responsible for resolving the trouble ticket (may be the end user,
another service representative, or a service group).
Ref # A number used by an external system (if any) to identify the trouble
ticket.
Associating Parent and Child Trouble Tickets
to define the trouble ticket record set, and then select the trouble ticket in the
Trouble Tickets list.
3 In the More Info form, click the show more button and then do one of the
following:
To assign a trouble ticket using Siebel Assignment Manager, click the menu
button, select Assign, and then select a person.
To manually assign a trouble ticket to a person, select a person in the Owner
field.
To manually assign a trouble ticket to a group, select a group in the Group
field.
Associating Parent and Child Trouble Tickets
The general procedure for setting up a parent-child relationship is to create the child
trouble ticket and then associate it with an existing trouble ticket that will be the
parent.
End users can group many child trouble tickets under one parent trouble ticket.
Grouping several trouble tickets under one parent can be useful for managing a
single network problem that results in calls from many customers.
To associate a child trouble ticket with existing parent trouble tickets
2 In the Trouble Tickets list, select one or more child trouble tickets.
3 Click the Parent Trouble Tickets view tab.
The Trouble Ticket Details form appears with the Parent Trouble Tickets list
beneath it.
4 In the Parent Trouble Tickets list, click New.
Trouble Ticket Solutions
5 In the Add Trouble Tickets dialog box, select one or more parent trouble tickets.
NOTE: A list of children of a selected trouble ticket appears in the Related Trouble
Tickets view.
To verify the entitlement associated with the trouble ticket
2 Select the trouble ticket.
4 In the More Info form, click the show more button to access more fields.
5 In the Entitlement Name field, select an entitlement.
NOTE: For information on determining how this dialog box is populated, see
Siebel Field Service Guide.
6 In the More Info form, click Verify.
The Due Date field is automatically populated with the appropriate time period.
For instance, if the customer is entitled to have a problem fixed within two
hours, the Due Date field will reflect this.
Trouble Ticket Solutions
Customer service organizations estimate that approximately 85 percent of assigned
trouble tickets are related to problems that have been previously encountered.
Siebel eCommunications provides easy access to descriptions of how previous
trouble tickets were resolved. When there is no existing solution to a trouble ticket,
a member of the organization can research the problem and create a new
description in the form of a solution record.
Resolving Trouble Tickets
Solutions Defined
In Siebel eCommunications, the term solution specifically means a record in the
Siebel eCommunications database that includes a description of how a previous
trouble ticket was resolved or how an anticipated future trouble ticket could be
resolved. The word solution is also used in general terms to mean an answer to a
problem.
Further Information
End users can review and create solutions for trouble tickets using the same
methods used to review and create solutions for service requests. For more
information about working with solutions, see Siebel Field Service Guide.
Resolving Trouble Tickets
This section describes various ways of resolving trouble tickets.
Adding an Activity to a Trouble Ticket
Resolving a trouble ticket may require several procedures, performed by more than
one person or group. End users can create an activity for each step and assign the
activity to themselves, another qualified person, or a group.
Activity plans consist of a list of activities to be completed to resolve a problem. If
an appropriate activity template exists, end users can select the template to
populate their activities list with a defined set of activities. Then end users can
customize the list, if necessary.
For more information about working with activities and activity plans, see
Applications Administration Guide.
To associate an activity plan with a trouble ticket
3 Click the Activity Plans view tab.
4 In the Activity Plans list, add a record.
Using the Customer Satisfaction Survey
5 In the Template field, select an Activity Template.
To add an activity to a trouble ticket
Closing a Trouble Ticket
When a trouble ticket is resolved, end users can change its status to Closed in any
Trouble Ticket list or form. Changes cannot be made to trouble tickets that are
closed. To continue working on a closed trouble ticket, first change its status to
Open or Pending.
To close a trouble ticket
4 In the More Info form, from the Status drop-down list, select Closed.
NOTE: When you save or click outside the record, the Sub-Status field changes to
Resolved and the Date Closed field reflects the current time and date.
Customer satisfaction surveys allow end users to conduct a survey with the person
who initiated a trouble ticket. If they have Chart Works Server (a third-party
application) installed, a chart displays a measurement of the customers satisfaction
as they record the customers responses. On a subsequent occasion, they can
conduct another survey without overwriting existing survey records.
As part of closing a trouble ticket, end users can conduct a customer survey in
person, or they can use the Correspondence screen to send a letter and survey to
the originator of a trouble ticket. When they mail a survey, an activity is
automatically generated for the mailing.
To conduct a customer survey
3 Click the Customer Satisfaction Survey view tab.
4 Scroll down to the Survey Details form, and add a record.
5 Ask each of the questions on the Survey form and record the customers answer
for each field.
To send out a customer satisfaction survey
3 From the application-level menu, select File > New > Correspondence.
4 In the Correspondence list, add a record.
5 In the Template field, select the appropriate customer satisfaction survey
template.
6 Complete the remaining necessary fields in the Correspondence form.
7 To add another recipient, add a record in the Recipients list.
8 To include an enclosure:
Field Comments
Label Template A template for the mailing labels.
Fulfillment Center The department or company that will handle mailing the survey.
Analyzing Trouble Tickets Data
a In the Enclosures list, add a record.
b In the Add Literature dialog box, select a record and click Add.
9 In the Correspondence list, click Submit to send the survey.
Analyzing Trouble Tickets Data
You can use charts to perform various types of analyses on your groups trouble
tickets.
To analyze trouble tickets data using charts
3 Click the Charts view tab.
4 In the Charts view, from the Show drop-down list, select a chart.
5 In the By drop-down lists, select appropriate chart settings.
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Trouble
Tickets
For descriptions of other procedures related to trouble tickets, see the Siebel
Bookshelf.
Customer Verification
When a customer telephones a call or service center, end users must verify if the
person is an existing or new customer. To verify a customer, end users navigate to
the Accounts or Contacts screen and perform a query on a form of information
about the customer, such as last name, Social Security number, and so on. If the
customer exists in the system, end users can review which requests have already
been entered for this customer. If the customer does not already exist in the system,
end users can add the customer. For more information about accounts and contacts,
see Chapter 2, Accounts, and Chapter 4, Contacts.
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Trouble Tickets
Entitlement Verification
When creating a trouble ticket, verify the type of service agreement and
entitlements connected with it. For more information about service agreements and
entitlements see Chapter 5, Agreements and Entitlements.
Communication with Field Service Agents
End users may need to contact a field service agent. Siebel eCommunications allows
you to send messages about trouble tickets in several ways, including sending a text
message to a pager. For more information, see Siebel Communications Server
Administration Guide.
Trouble Tickets and Attachments
At any time, end users can store additional information relating to a trouble ticket
in the database by associating an electronic file with the trouble ticket record. For
directions for associating an attachment with a record, see Fundamentals.
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Trouble Tickets
Credit Management
12
Credit management functionality frequently resides in third-party back-office credit
systems. Siebel eBusiness Application Integration (eAI), which is part of Siebel
eCommunications, provides you with the ability to integrate with these systems and
to use their information and functionality.
If customers are late in paying their bills or have not paid their bills in full, their
accounts are flagged by the third-party credit system. The rules for detecting late
payment or nonpayment are defined in the credit system. Siebel eCommunications
can interpret late payment or nonpayment messages that the credit system
generates.
As a basis for credit management, Siebel eCommunications provides information in
the form of credit alerts. A credit alert is a Siebel eCommunications credit record
that can be generated by messages from a back-office credit management system
when a customer breaches a credit threshold. It can also be generated manually by
a customer request or by the initiative of a customer service representative (CSR).
Credit alerts can be resolved through a variety of means, such as customer payment
of the outstanding amount, adjustments to a customer account to correct an
erroneous billing, and an agreement with a customer for a payment arrangement
plan.
Credit Management Functions
Siebel eCommunications Credit Management provides the following capabilities:
Credit Alerts. Generates credit alerts when external credit management systems
send information about changes in the credit situation of a customer. Provides
the ability to send updated credit alert information back to the external credit
management systems.
Activities. Generates activities associated with a credit alert. Also allows you to
add activities based on a credit alert.
Credit Management
Business Scenario for Credit Management
Payments. Allows you to send customer payments to the credit management
system in response to a credit alert.
Account Adjustments. Allows you to send requests to the credit management
system for adjustments to a customer account when a credit alert is in error.
Displays the credit management systems responses to these requests.
Payment Arrangements. Allows you to send requests to the credit management
system for payment arrangement plans in response to a credit alert. Displays the
credit management systems responses to these requests.
Attachments. Allows you to attach external documents to a credit alert.
In addition, Siebel eCommunications provides the following credit management
requirements in other modules:
Credit Rating. Displays the customers credit rating details, including credit score,
source, and date. For more information, see About Financial Profiles on
page 60.
Billing Information. Displays customer billing information you may need to
resolve a credit alert.
CSRs use Credit Management functionality to manage and monitor customer credit
issues. They are responsible for reviewing with the customer all account
information and credit issues, as well as answering billing inquiries, suggesting
payment arrangement plans, and making account adjustments.
Customer service supervisors use Credit Management functionality to determine if
a CSR is allowed to request credit adjustments on a customers account, set up
payment arrangement plans, and maintain billing profiles.
Credit Management
A CSR is responsible for handling credit queries for all of your small and medium-
sized customers. A business customer has a contract for wireless subscriptions for
its employees. The owner usually pays the bill on time. However, the latest bill for
the wireless services is overdue by 18 days.
This nonpayment is automatically detected by the companys accounts receivable
system and is forwarded to the credit management system, which then forwards a
nonpayment message to Siebel eCommunications. The message causes Siebel
eCommunications to create a credit alert.
Siebel eCommunications then generates an activity to contact the owner and sets
the account status appropriately. The credit alert appears in the customer service
supervisor's queue by default, and the supervisor assigns the credit alert to the CSR.
The CSR examines the credit alert and reviews the billing information needed to
handle any customer questions. She also checks for all credit alerts raised against
the customers account in the last 12 months to see if there is a history of
delinquency. This turns out to be the first credit alert against the customers
account. The CSR then checks the customer's credit rating, which is acceptable.
The CSR looks up contact information for the customer in Siebel eCommunications
and telephones the owner, who is listed as the primary contact for the customer
account. The owner apologizes for the delay in payment of the bill and explains that
the company has experienced a temporary cash flow problem. The owner asks what
options are available. The CSR informs the owner that he can either delay the
payment of the bill or request a payment arrangement plan. The owner asks to
repay the outstanding bill in three installments.
The CSR enters the required information into Siebel eCommunications, sets the
credit alerts Status to Pending, and records the details of the conversation in the
Comments field.
Siebel eCommunications transmits this information to the credit management
system. The credit management system processes the request overnight and
responds with an update to the credit alert. The next day, the CSR checks for all
open and pending credit alerts assigned to them. The CSR notices that the
customers payment arrangement request has been approved.
Credit Management
The CSR contacts the owner and informs him of the outcome. The CSR then writes
a letter confirming the details of the payment arrangement plan, and attaches the
letter to the credit alert. Then the CSR updates the Action Type of the credit alert to
Payment Arrangement Agreed.
Credit Management
Figure 16 shows the sequence a CSR might use to process a customer credit alert.
Figure 16. Example of Sequence for Credit Management
Credit Management
End-User Procedures for Credit Management
End-User Procedures for Credit Management
To create an internal credit alert on page 179
To add an activity to a credit alert on page 180
To create a payment record on page 181
To submit a request for an account adjustment on page 183
To submit a request for a payment arrangement plan on page 183
To view a history of payment arrangements on page 184
To view an account adjustment outcome on page 185
To view a payment arrangement plan outcome on page 185
To record the customers decision about an account adjustment outcome on
page 186
To record the customers decision about a payment arrangement outcome on
page 187
To close a credit alert on page 187
Reviewing and Adding a Credit Alert
The All Credit Alerts view displays all credit alerts in the system. The My Credit
Alerts view displays only the credit alerts that are assigned specifically to an end
user. These views are identical except for the ownership. The policies for
assignment of credit alerts are determined by their company.
End users can use the All Credit Alerts view or the My Credit Alerts view to see
external credit alerts, which originate from your companys external credit
management system. They can limit the list by selecting a predefined query. Siebel
eCommunications includes the queries All, Closed, Open and Unassigned Alerts.
Credit Management
Reviewing and Adding a Credit Alert
End users can also use these views to create internal credit alerts for preemptive
measures; these alerts can record situations such as the likelihood of a delayed
customer payment. If they have permission to do so, end users can create a credit
alert and a corresponding payment arrangement plan record.
On being contacted by a service provider regarding a credit problem, a customer
may want you to query the billing account. The customer may, for example, believe
that he has been incorrectly billed. End users may, therefore, need to refer to the
customer billing data to deal with the customer contact. For more information, see
Chapter 9, Billing.
To create an internal credit alert
1 Navigate to the Credit Management screen.
2 In the Credit Alerts form, add a record and complete the necessary fields. To
access more fields, click the show more button in the upper right corner of the
form.
Field Comments
Account Account name associated with the credit alert.
Account # Account number associated with the credit alert.
Action Type Type of action to be performed in relation to a credit alert. The
Action Type may generate or require one or more activities.
Agreement Agreement associated with the credit alert.
Alert # Unique identifier for the credit alert, which may or may not be
generated within Siebel eCommunications. Automatically populated
when a new record is added.
Amount Owed Amount owed by the customer.
Created On Date and time stamp showing when the credit alert was generated
within Siebel eCommunications.
Invoice # Invoice number associated with the credit alert.
Owner Person to whom the credit alert is assigned.
Credit Management
Adding an Activity to a Credit Alert
Adding an Activity to a Credit Alert
End users can associate activities with a credit alert. The Credit Alert Activities view
displays all activities associated with a selected credit alert.
To add an activity to a credit alert
2 In the Credit Alerts list, select a credit alert record.
Communication with the Customer
Contact the customer to discuss the reason for the credit alert and the available
payment options. Determine if it is necessary to adjust the customers account, or
help the customer to decide whether they would like to send payment immediately
or request a payment arrangement plan.
Priority Priority of the action to be taken in response to the credit alert.
Source Indicates if the alert was generated externally by a credit
management system or internally by a CSR. Automatically
populated.
Status Status of the credit alert.
Field Comments
Credit Management
Entering Payment Information
Entering Payment Information
The Payment Information view allows end users to submit a record of payment
received from a customer in response to a credit alert. One possible resolution for a
credit alert involves the customers immediate payment of the amount outstanding.
End users can enter multiple instances of payment information for a single credit
alert.
The Credit Alert Detail form displays a selected credit alert. The Payment
Information form changes dynamically depending on the payment method end
users select in the Method field.
To create a payment record
2 In the Credit Alerts list, select a credit alert record.
3 Click the Payments view tab.
4 Scroll down to the Payment Detail form and add a record.
5 In the Payment Method field, select the type of payment method used by the
customer to make a payment.
When you select a payment method from the Method drop-down list, additional
fields appear in the form.
6 Complete the necessary fields.
Field Comments
Card # (Credit Card only) The number on the front of the credit card.
Reference Location
(Reference only)
The name of the third-party business (for example,
bank or post office name).
Reference # (Reference Only) The purchase order or receipt number.
Credit Management
Overview of Requests for Account Adjustments or Payment Plans
For more information about entering payment information, see Entering Payment
Against an Outstanding Balance on page 133.
Overview of Requests for Account Adjustments or
Payment Plans
A customer may have been incorrectly billed for a service and therefore may not
have made a payment. In that case, end users need to make an adjustment to the
customers billing account. Typically, they associate an account adjustment with a
credit alert because it may solve a customer credit issue. The actual account
adjustment is made in a third-party billing or accounts receivable system. However,
Siebel eCommunications provides the ability to request an adjustment and to
receive information about the outcome.
Another customer might be facing financial difficulties and is unable to meet his
obligations to pay for services. Such a customer might request a payment
arrangement plan with installments or a deferral of payment. In response, your
company can approve the request, reject the request, or propose its own terms. The
response may depend on factors such as corporate policy, customer credit history
or credit-worthiness, and length of the customers association with your company.
A payment arrangement plan is associated with a credit alert because it may resolve
a customer credit issue.
The customer request is sent to the back-office credit management system for
approval. The customer request can be approved in full, rejected entirely, or
modified with new terms. The credit management system then sends the outcome
back to Siebel eCommunications.
NOTE: You can request either an installment plan or a payment deferral. For a
deferral request, specify one installment to be paid at a future date.
Account adjustments and payment plans consist of these procedures:
1 Submit the request for an adjustment or a payment plan.
3 Record the customers decision about the outcome.
Credit Management
Submitting a Request
The next sections describe these three procedures.
End users first submit a request for an account adjustment or a payment plan.
To submit a request for an account adjustment
2 In the Credit Alerts list, select a credit alert.
3 Click the Account Adjustments view tab.
The Account Adjustments list displays the history of adjustment requests.
4 In the Account Adjustments list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
NOTE: It is possible to submit multiple account adjustment requests for a single
account. However, this situation is not typical.
To submit a request for a payment arrangement plan
Field Comments
Amount Amount of the adjustment. Set by default to amount owed on the credit
alert.
Date Date the request for adjustment is made. Set by default to current date and
time.
Reason Reason the adjustment request is being made.
Status Status of the request. Set by default to Open.
Type Type of adjustment request.
Credit Management
4 In the Payment Arrangements form, select Payment Arrangement Details from
the Show drop-down list.
5 In the Payment Arrangement Details form, add a record and complete the
necessary fields.
6 Click the back button until you return to the credit alert list.
7 From the Action Type drop-down list, select Payment Arrangement Requested.
To view a history of payment arrangements
Field Comments
Installment Amount This field is automatically populated when you enter the
number of installments. The installment amount equals the
original amount due divided by the number of installments.
Number of Installments Number of installments for payment arrangement. For a
single-payment deferral plan, this number is 1.
Original Amount Due Total amount due.
Original Due Date Original due date for payment.
Plan End Date Payment Arrangement plan end date.
For a single-payment deferral plan, use the same date for
both Start Date and End Date.
Plan Start Date Payment Arrangement plan start date.
Plan Type Type of payment arrangement plan.
Status Status of the request. From the drop-down list, select
Pending.
Credit Management
Viewing a Request Outcome
4 In the Payment Arrangements form, select Payment Arrangement from the Show
drop-down list.
Viewing a Request Outcome
Typically, the account adjustments and payment arrangement plans are agreed
upon in the back office, either manually or through a system. The back-office
system then sends the outcome of the customer request to Siebel eCommunications.
To view an account adjustment outcome
4 In the Account Adjustments list, review the credit management systems
response to the adjustment request, specifically the Status, Amount Approved,
and Approval Description fields.
NOTE: Each adjustment request is accompanied by a single adjustment outcome.
To view a payment arrangement plan outcome
Credit Management
Recording the Customers Decision About the Outcome
4 Scroll down to the Payment Arrangements Outcome form to view the credit
management systems response to the adjustment request.
Some of the fields are described in the following table.
Recording the Customers Decision About the Outcome
End users can record the customers decision about the outcome.
To record the customers decision about an account adjustment outcome
4 In the Account Adjustments list, enter information in the Customer Decision and
Customer Decision Date fields.
NOTE: If your companys policy does not require a customer decision regarding
an account adjustment outcome, the customer decision fields may not appear in
Siebel eCommunications.
Field Comments
Installment Amount Payment amount per installment. This can be either a single
payment or multiple installments.
Interest Charge Interest owed on the payment arrangement plan. This is
calculated by the back-office system.
Number of Installments Number of installments. This can be either a single payment
or multiple installments.
Plan Type Type of payment arrangement plan.
Status Outcome of the payment arrangement plan request.
Total Amount Due Total owed for bill and accrued interest.
Credit Management
Closing a Credit Alert
5 If the customer rejects the outcome, discuss the options again and submit
another request.
To record the customers decision about a payment arrangement outcome
4 Scroll down to the Payment Arrangements Outcome form and enter information
in the Customer Decision and Customer Decision Date fields.
NOTE: If your companys policy does not require a customer decision regarding
an account adjustment outcome, the customer decision fields may not appear in
Siebel eCommunications.
5 If the customer rejects the outcome, discuss the options again and submit
another request.
Closing a Credit Alert
After an outcome has been received and accepted (if necessary), close the credit
alert.
To close a credit alert
3 In the Action Type field, select Payment Arrangement Agreed.
4 In the Status field, select Closed.
Credit Management
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Credit Management
Additional End-User Procedures Related to Credit
Management
For descriptions of other, more general procedures related to credit management,
see Siebel Field Service Guide, Applications Administration Guide, Siebel Sales User
Guide, and Siebel Call Center User Guide.
Financial Information Checks
Look at customer financial information, including bills and credit rating data, that
may be useful in resolving credit alerts. For information about checking customer
financial information, see About Financial Profiles on page 60.
Fraud Management
13
Fraud occurs when someone uses a service to defraud a consumer, business, or
service provider by obtaining free services or services that the individual concerned
is not entitled to. Some of the more common methods and indicators of fraud
include:
Cloning of wireless handsets
Stolen handsets
Unauthorized third-party charging of calls
Stolen or fraudulently obtained calling cards and PINs
Bills returned in the mail with a claim that the customer is not at that address
Fraud can be identified in various ways. For example, a consumer may identify
fraud on a bill, noting charges for services that were not requested or used.
Alternatively, a service provider may identify irregular calling patterns that may
indicate fraud.
Traditionally, companies have used legacy fraud management systems to identify
and manage fraud.
Fraud Management Overview
The fraud management process involves fraud alerts, warnings that a fraud may
have been committed, which are generated by the fraud management system from
an analysis of calling details. For example, an alert may be generated if the system
detects calls originating from two different cities within a short time period. A
common way to commit such a fraud is by cloning, illegally modifying a handset
chip to send an identification signal for another, legal phone. This allows the owner
of the illegal handset to make phone calls on the legal phone owner's account.
Fraud Management
Business Scenario for Fraud Management
A fraud alert can also be generated by a breach of a fraud threshold. A fraud
threshold is a value which, when exceeded, produces a fraud alert. For example, a
customer may have a threshold limit of $250.00 per day for domestic calls.
The back-office system issues a fraud alert by placing the customer on a fraud list,
a list of customer accounts that are suspected of or confirmed for fraud. The back-
office system may generate multiple lists, classified by categories in descending
order of the likelihood of fraud.
A back-office fraud management system usually has a front-office component,
which is used to manage customer interactions related to fraud. Siebel
eCommunications functions as the front-office application for managing fraud. Your
companys back-office fraud management systems send fraud lists to Siebel
eCommunications for follow-up. Customer service representatives (CSRs) go
through the lists and contact the customers to check if they made the calls that are
the cause of the fraud alerts.
Fraud alerts indicate what type of fraud may have occurred. For example, Exceeds
Threshold is a fraud alert type that indicates that a predefined limit has been
exceeded. Another fraud alert type, Stolen Handset, indicates that a customer's
wireless handset has been stolen.
To help you resolve cases of suspected or obvious fraud, Siebel eCommunications
allows you to view fraud lists, fraud alerts, fraud-related background information
about accounts, and the history of fraud-related activities for an account.
A CSR is responsible for handling fraud issues for all of your small and medium-
sized customers. A business customer has a contract for wireless subscriptions for
the firms employees. The owner is one of the wireless subscribers and is based in
Rome.
Fraud Management
The CSRs fraud management system notices that calls from the owners wireless
phone have originated in San Francisco and Los Angeles within a span of a few
minutes. This can only happen when a wireless handset has been cloned. The fraud
management system generates a fraud alert for the customers account, with the
fraud level set to Certain, the fraud type set to Invalid Calls, and fraud event set to
Simultaneous Calls. The fraud management system also suspends the customers
account pending customer confirmation. The fraud message and the associated call
detail records (CDRs) are forwarded to Siebel eCommunications. The fraud system
creates the alert and flags the account. Through integration with the third-party
system, the fraud data is sent to the CSRs Siebel application, and the account is
flagged as fraudulent. The Siebel application creates a fraud alert and fraud alert
details and updates the customer account with the fraud level.
Siebel eCommunications has been configured to generate an activity to contact the
customer. The fraud alert appears in the customer service supervisor's queue by
default, and the supervisor assigns the fraud alert to the CSR, who then examines
the fraud alert and associated fraud alert details. The CSR also checks for any other
fraud alerts raised against the customers account in the last 12 months to see if
there is a history of fraud. This turns out to be the first fraud alert against this
customers account.
The CSR looks up contact information for the customer in Siebel eCommunications
and telephones the owner, who is listed as the primary contact for the customer
account. The owner mentions that he has not been to Los Angeles for more than
two years, and is certain that the phone has been in his control during this period.
The CSR informs him that there may have been a fraudulent use of his telephone
number, and that the CSR will need to provide him with another telephone number.
The customer agrees to take his handset to the nearest dealer who will help him
with this process. The CSR updates the fraud alert's status and attaches appropriate
comments.
Siebel eCommunications transmits this information to the fraud management
system. The CSRs fraud management department then starts its formal
investigation.
Fraud Management
End-User Procedures for Fraud Management
Figure 17 shows a possible sequence for managing fraud.
End-User Procedures for Fraud Management
To view a fraud alert on page 193
To view fraud alert details on page 193
Figure 17. Example of Sequence for Fraud Management
Fraud Management
Viewing Fraud Alerts and Fraud Alert Details
To change a fraud threshold on page 195
To update a fraud alert on page 195
Viewing Fraud Alerts and Fraud Alert Details
When a back-office application flags an account for fraud, Siebel eCommunications
receives a fraud alert and fraud alert details.
In the course of investigating fraud, end users review the fraud alert to determine
the type of fraud that may have occurred. End users then discuss the fraud alert
details, which contain the specific data alleged to be fraudulent, with the customer.
To view a fraud alert
1 Navigate to the Fraud Management screen.
2 In the Fraud Alerts list, select a fraud alert.
Some fields in the list are described in the following table.
To view fraud alert details
Field Comments
Alert # Unique identifier code assigned by the system to each fraud
alert.
Fraud Event Condition that indicates suspected fraud. The value in this field
depends on the value in the Fraud Type field.
Owner Primary person assigned to this account for fraud management
purposes. This person is responsible for customer follow-up to
determine if fraud has taken place.
Threshold Overflow Quantity by which the accounts threshold level was exceeded.
Fraud Management
Follow-Up with the Customer
3 Click the Event Details view tab.
An Account form appears with the Event Details list beneath it. The Event
Details list displays detailed information about the selected alert. This typically
consists of the call detail records associated with the suspected fraudulent calls.
It is possible for certain fraud alerts (for example, Stolen Handset) to have no
associated fraud alert details.
Some fields in the Event Details list are described in the following table.
Follow-Up with the Customer
End users should establish contact with the customer. Your company may have a
business rule that determines how many times end users should attempt to contact
the customer.
If repeated attempts to contact the customer fail, end users may need to disconnect
the customers service. Your company can configure Siebel eCommunications to
send a message to this effect to the back-office system. Workflow Manager or a VB
script might be used for this configuration.
Field Comments
Charge Cost of or charges for the service from the Charge dialog box.
Date/Time Date and time of the event.
Length Length of the service in seconds.
Number Called Number dialed in a suspected fraudulent call.
Number Location Geographical location of the number dialed in a suspected
fraudulent call.
Rate The name of the rate plan used to calculate the chargefor
example, Peak, Off-Peak, Standard, Economy, or International.
Fraud Management
Changing Fraud Thresholds
Changing Fraud Thresholds
End users can change thresholds in the fraud profile, if necessary. For example, if a
breach of a credit threshold generated the fraud alert, the customer can request a
higher threshold. If this is granted, it may cancel the fraud alert.
To change a fraud threshold
3 Click the Account Name hyperlink.
4 In the Fraud Account Profile form, change one or more of the fields.
For information about the fields in the Fraud Account Profile form, see
Chapter 3, Profiles.
Updating the Fraud Alert
End users can indicate that some action has been taken by adding comments or by
changing other fields in the fraud alert record, such as its status, priority, or owner.
To update a fraud alert
4 In the More Info form, complete the necessary fields.
Additional Procedures Related to Fraud Management
For descriptions of other procedures related to fraud management, see the Siebel
Bookshelf.
Fraud Management
Additional Procedures Related to Fraud Management
Disconnecting Service
End users can disconnect a customers service, if necessary, based on the nature of
the alert, a discussion with the customer, failure to contact the customer, or your
companys policy. Depending on the severity of the alert, part or all of the
customers services (for example, international dialing) may already have been
disconnected by the back-office system.
If your company has configured the Fraud Activities types to include Service
Disconnect, end users can add this activity to a fraud alert. Otherwise, for
information about disconnecting a service, see Siebel Order Management Guide
Addendum for Industry Applications.
Defining an Integration Workflow Process
14
A workflow process is a sequence of steps that automates a business function. Some
workflow processes (also known as business processes) allow your company to
integrate Siebel eCommunications with back-office systems, including databases.
You can implement integration with third-party systems by using the following
resources and techniques:
Prebuilt workflows. Some prebuilt workflow processes are included in the sample
database distributed with Siebel eCommunications, along with prebuilt
integration objects in the Siebel Tools repository. If a workflow process
mentioned in this chapter is not in your Siebel applications sample database, it
may be available on request. To request a workflow process, please contact
Siebel Professional Services.
Manual integration. Your company can automate the integration between Siebel
eCommunications and other applications manually. To automate the integration
between Siebel eCommunications and other applications manually, you
normally use both Siebel Business Process Designer and Siebel eBusiness
Application Integration (eAI).
UAN integration. Siebel Systems Universal Application Network (UAN) is a
separate product that defines a library of business processes to integrate external
applications with Siebel applications. This library consists of business process
flows, common objects, and transformation maps that run on third-party
integration servers. Your company can use the design tools provided by the
integration server vendors to model and configure the business processes,
common objects, and transformation maps as needed. After they have been
designed, these processes are imported into the integration server for
deployment. For more information about UAN, or to purchase UAN, please
contact Siebel Sales.
This chapter explains integration using prebuilt sample workflows that may be
provided with your Siebel application or that may be available on request. This
chapter contains the following sections:
Terminology
Business scenarios that illustrate how sample integration workflow processes
can be used to automate or partially automate a business process.
Descriptions of sample integration workflow processes that are available in the
Siebel eCommunications sample database.
Details of two sample workflow processes to help you understand how a
workflow process is set up. Refer to these samples when you design your own
integration workflow processes.
This chapter does not give detailed information about Business Process
Administration or application integration in general. For information about these
topics, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide and the Siebel eAI
guides, available on the Siebel Bookshelf.
NOTE: The integration workflow processes discussed in this chapter are not
Application Services Interfaces (ASIs), although they serve a similar function.
Terminology
This section describes some terms used in this chapter in the context of workflow
processes.
Siebel eAI. Siebel eBusiness Application Integration is a set of tools, technologies,
and prebuilt functional integrations that facilitate application integration. It
supports message-based integration with external applications. Using the eAI
module, a service provider can connect Siebel eCommunications directly to another
application within the operational support system architecture or connect to a hub
or queue. This process allows middleware vendors to build their own Siebel-to-
third-party connectors.
NOTE: Integration with specific back-office systems or middleware packages is
performed by your company. Siebel eBusiness Applications offers prebuilt
connectors to some back-office applications.
Business Scenarios for Defining Integration Workflow Processes
Integration Objects. Integration objects define the content of the messages that are
initiated or received by Siebel eCommunications. They are based on business
objects. The repository stores both integration objects and the mapping between
business objects and integration objects.
Business Services. Business services act upon objects to move data, convert data
formats, and perform calculations. The Siebel eCommunications repository
contains some business services that specifically help with integration tasks. You
can also build your own in Siebel Tools (at design time) or in the Siebel Web client
(at run time).
Workflow Processes. Workflow processes are sequences of steps that are used by
Business Process Administration to automate a business function. Workflow
process steps call business services that perform the procedures needed to perform
a business process.
Business Scenarios for Defining Integration Workflow
Processes
The following business scenarios illustrate how you can automate business
processes using workflow processes in combination with Business Process
Administration.
NOTE: Triggers for some business processes (for example, a button-push or workflow
policy) are defined during implementation of the workflow process.
Responding to an External Request for Account Data
An external system requires account data from Siebel eCommunications. The
external application calls the CUT Send Account Data workflow process using the
available Siebel object interfaces. The CUT Send Account Data workflow process
triggers the CUT Get Account Data subprocess. It retrieves the data from Siebel
eCommunications using the workflow process as an API.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Account Data
along with the subprocess CUT Send Account Data.
Sending Account Data to an External System
An end user creates or modifies a customer account record in Siebel
eCommunications, and this information is communicated to a back-office system.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Account Data.
Receiving Account Data from an External System
The customer account data has been modified in a back-office system and must be
updated in Siebel eCommunications.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Account Data.
Responding to an External Request for Service Profile Data
An external system requires service profile data from Siebel eCommunications. The
external application calls the CUT Send Service Profile workflow process directly,
using the available Siebel object interfaces. The CUT Send Service Profile workflow
process triggers the CUT Get Service Profile subprocess. It retrieves the data from
Siebel eCommunications using the workflow process as an API.
NOTE: A service profile contains the same information found on the Installed Assets
view of the Accounts screen.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Service Profile
Data along with the subprocess CUT Get Service Profile Data.
Synchronizing Service Profile Data with an External System
End users create or modify a service profile in Siebel eCommunications, and the
profile data must be synchronized with one or more back-office systems.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Service Profile
Data.
Synchronizing External Service Profile Data
End users create or modify a service profile in an external application, and the
profile data is synchronized with Siebel eCommunications.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Service Profile
Data.
Responding to an External Request for Sales Order Data
An external system requires sales order data from Siebel eCommunications. The
external application calls the CUT Get Sales Order Data workflow process directly,
using the available Siebel object interfaces. It retrieves the data from Siebel
eCommunications directly, using the workflow process as an API.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Get Sales Order Data.
Sending Sales Order Data to an External System
End users create a sales order in Siebel eCommunications, and the order data is sent
to one or more back-office systems.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Sales Order Data.
Receiving Sales Order Data from an External System
The sales order has been acted upon by one of the back-office systems and must be
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Sales Order
Data.
Responding to an External Request for Work Order Data
The external system requires work order data. The external application calls the
CUT Get Work Order Data workflow process using the available Siebel object
interfaces. It retrieves the data from Siebel eCommunications directly, using the
workflow process as an API.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Get Work Order Data.
Sending Work Order Data to an External System
End users create a work order in Siebel eCommunications, and the order data is sent
to one or more back-office systems.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Work Order Data.
Receiving Work Order Data from an External System
The work order has been acted upon by one of the back-office systems and must be
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Work Order
Data.
Responding to an External Request for Trouble Ticket Data
The external system requires trouble ticket data. The external application calls the
CUT Get Trouble Ticket Data workflow process using the available Siebel object
interfaces. The external application retrieves the data from Siebel eCommunications
directly, using the workflow process as an API.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Get Trouble Ticket Data.
Sending Trouble Ticket Data to an External System
A trouble ticket is created by a customer through a Siebel eCommunications
customer application or through a phone call to a CSR. After it is entered, trouble
ticket data is sent to a back-office system using the CUT Send Trouble Ticket Data
workflow process.
NOTE: Customers have different requirements, and only certain types of trouble
tickets must be sent to back-office systems. Some trouble tickets can be managed
entirely within Siebel eCommunications. The supporting integration process is
designed for trouble tickets that are sent to the back office. During implementation
of a workflow process, the trigger must be implemented in such a way that the
workflow process is only invoked for trouble tickets that are sent to the back office.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Trouble Ticket
Data.
Receiving Trouble Ticket Data from an External System
A trouble ticket is created in a back-office system. The trouble ticket record is sent
by the back-office system to Siebel eCommunications using the CUT Receive
Trouble Ticket workflow process, allowing call center representatives to access
externally generated trouble tickets. Updates to trouble tickets stored in a back-
office system can also be sent to Siebel eCommunications by this mechanism.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Trouble Ticket
Data.
Receiving Fraud Alert Data
A fraud alert record is created in a back-office system and sent to Siebel
eCommunications using the CUT Receive Fraud Alert Data workflow process.
Updates to fraud alert information stored in the back-office system are
communicated to Siebel eCommunications in the same way, allowing CSRs to see
the latest information about externally generated alerts.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Fraud Alert
Data.
Receiving Credit Alert Data
A credit alert record is created in a back-office system and sent to Siebel
eCommunications using the CUT Receive Credit Alert Data workflow process.
Updates to credit alert information stored in the back-office system are
communicated to Siebel eCommunications in the same way, allowing CSRs to see
the latest information about externally generated alerts.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Credit Alert
Data.
Synchronizing Phone Number Data with an External System
End users create or modify a phone number in Siebel eCommunications, and the
phone number is synchronized with one or more back-office systems using the CUT
Send Phone Number Data workflow process.
NOTE: This process describes the exchange of phone number data. It is assumed that
the phone number data are stored as Assets in the Siebel database. This process can
be applied to any Asset data.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Send Phone Number
Data.
Synchronizing External Phone Number Data with Siebel
eCommunications
End users create or modify a phone number in an external application, and the
phone number data is synchronized with Siebel eCommunications using the CUT
Receive Phone Number Data workflow process.
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Receive Phone Number
Data.
Responding to an External Inquiry for Phone Number Data
The external system requires phone number (asset) data. The external application
calls the CUT Get Phone Number Data workflow process using the available Siebel
object interfaces. The external application retrieves the data from Siebel
eCommunications using the workflow process as an API.
Sample Integration Workflow Processes
The workflow process used to perform this scenario is CUT Get Phone Number
Data.
This section lists the sample integration workflow processes and indicates which
business services, integration objects, and methods are used for each step.
NOTE: Sample workflows must be imported into your database. For instructions on
importing these workflows, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration
Guide.
Some workflow process steps call other workflow processes. For example, Step 1 of
the CUT Send Account Data workflow process calls the CUT Get Account Data
workflow process. In this example, the CUT Get Account Data workflow process is
a subprocess of the CUT Send Account Data workflow process (see Table 16 on
page 206).
Some sample workflow processes communicate using the Siebel EAI MQ Series
Transport. If your company does not use MQ Series, you can replace the appropriate
step with one that uses either a custom transport business service, the provided
HTTP business service, or the provided XML file business service. Business services
are located in the Siebel Tools repository and are available for use when defining
workflow processes.
The integration objects used in the samples are:
CUT Sample Account IO
CUT Sample Asset IO
CUT Sample Credit Alert IO
CUT Sample Fraud Alert IO
CUT Sample Sales Order IO
CUT Sample Service Profile IO
CUT Sample Trouble Ticket IO
CUT Sample Work Order IO
NOTE: The Integration Object mentioned in this section is specified in XML. It is not
specified as a Business Service Input Argument.
CUT Send Account Data
Table 16 shows the steps for the CUT Send Account Data workflow process.
CUT Get Account Data
Table 17 shows the steps for the CUT Get Account Data workflow subprocess.
Table 16. CUT Send Account Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Element Step 1 Step 2
Step Name Get Account Data Send Account Data
Subprocess Name CUT Get Account Data
Business Service EAI MQSeries Server
Transport
Integration Object
Method Send
Table 17. CUT Get Account Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Account Data Convert to XML
Subprocess Name
CUT Receive Account Data
Table 18 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Account Data workflow process.
CUT Send Service Profile Data
Table 19 shows the steps for the CUT Send Service Profile Data workflow process.
Business Service EAI Siebel Adapter EAI XML Converter
Integration Object CUT Sample Account IO
Method Query Integration Object Hierarchy
to XML Document
Table 18. CUT Receive Account Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Element Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Step Name Receive Account
Update
Convert to Internal Update Account
Subprocess Name
Transport
EAI XML Converter EAI Siebel Adapter
Integration Object
Method Receive XML Document to
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 19. CUT Send Service Profile Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Service Profile Data Send Service Profile Data
Subprocess Name CUT Get Service Profile
Data
Table 17. CUT Get Account Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Get Service Profile Data
Table 20 shows the steps for the CUT Get Service Profile Data workflow subprocess.
CUT Receive Service Profile Data
Table 21 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Service Profile Data workflow process.
Transport
Integration Object
Method Send
Table 20. CUT Get Service Profile Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Service Profile Data Convert to XML
Subprocess Name
Integration Object CUT Sample Service Profile
IO
to XML Document
Table 21. CUT Receive Service Profile Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Receive Service
Profile Update
Convert to Internal Update Service
Profile
Subprocess Name
Transport
Table 19. CUT Send Service Profile Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Get Sales Order Data
Table 22 shows the steps for the CUT Get Sales Order Data workflow process.
CUT Send Sales Order Data
Table 23 shows the steps for the CUT Send Sales Order Data workflow process.
Integration Object
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 22. CUT Get Sales Order Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Sales Order Data Convert to XML
Subprocess Name
Integration Object CUT Sample Sales Order IO
to XML Document
Table 23. CUT Send Sales Order Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Sales Order Data Send Sales Order Data
Subprocess Name CUT Get Sales Order Data
Transport
Table 21. CUT Receive Service Profile Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Receive Sales Order Data
Table 24 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Sales Order Data workflow process.
CUT Get Work Order Data
Table 25 shows the steps for the CUT Get Work Order Data workflow process.
Integration Object
Method Send
Table 24. CUT Receive Sales Order Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Receive Sales Order
Update
Convert to Internal Update Sales Order
Subprocess Name
Transport
Integration Object
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 25. CUT Get Work Order Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Work Order Data Convert to XML
Subprocess Name
Table 23. CUT Send Sales Order Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Send Work Order Data
Table 26 shows the steps for the CUT Send Work Order Data workflow process.
CUT Receive Work Order Data
Table 27 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Work Order Data workflow process.
Integration Object CUT Sample Work Order IO
to XML Document
Table 26. CUT Send Work Order Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Work Order Data Send Work Order Data
Subprocess Name CUT Get Work Order Data
Transport
Integration Object
Method Send
Table 27. CUT Receive Work Order Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Receive Work Order
Update
Convert to Internal Update Work Order
Subprocess Name
Transport
Table 25. CUT Get Work Order Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Get Trouble Ticket Data
Table 28 shows the steps for the CUT Get Trouble Ticket Data workflow process.
CUT Send Trouble Ticket Data
Table 29 shows the steps for the CUT Send Trouble Ticket Data workflow process.
Integration Object
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 28. CUT Get Trouble Ticket Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Trouble Ticket Data Convert to XML
Subprocess Name
Integration Object CUT Sample Trouble Ticket
IO
to XML Document
Table 29. CUT Send Trouble Ticket Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Trouble Ticket Data Send Trouble Ticket Data
Subprocess Name CUT Get Trouble Ticket
Data
Transport
Table 27. CUT Receive Work Order Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Receive Trouble Ticket Data
Table 30 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Trouble Ticket Data workflow process.
CUT Receive Fraud Alert Data
Table 31 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Fraud Alert Data workflow process.
Integration Object
Method Send
Table 30. CUT Receive Trouble Ticket Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Receive Trouble
Ticket Update
Convert to Internal Update Trouble
Ticket
Subprocess Name
Transport
Integration Object
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 31. CUT Receive Fraud Alert Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Receive Fraud Alert
Update
Convert to Internal Update Fraud Alert
Subprocess Name
Transport
Table 29. CUT Send Trouble Ticket Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Receive Credit Alert Data
Table 32 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Credit Alert Data workflow process.
CUT Get Phone Number Data
Table 33 shows the steps for the CUT Get Phone Number Data workflow process.
Integration Object
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 32. CUT Receive Credit Alert Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Receive Credit Alert
Update
Convert to Internal Update Credit Alert
Subprocess Name
Transport
Integration Object
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 33. CUT Get Phone Number Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Phone Number Data Convert to XML
Subprocess Name
Table 31. CUT Receive Fraud Alert Data Workflow Process Steps
CUT Send Phone Number Data
Table 34 shows the steps for the CUT Send Phone Number Data workflow process.
CUT Receive Phone Number Data
Table 35 shows the steps for the CUT Receive Phone Number Data workflow
process.
Integration Object CUT Sample Asset IO
to XML Document
Table 34. CUT Send Phone Number Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Get Phone Number Data Send Phone Number Data
Subprocess Name CUT Get Phone Number
Data
Transport
Integration Object
Method Send
Table 35. CUT Receive Phone Number Data Workflow Process Steps
Step Name Receive Phone
Number Update
Convert to Internal Update Phone
Number
Subprocess Name
Transport
Table 33. CUT Get Phone Number Data Workflow Process Steps
Sample Workflow Process: CUT Send Account Data
This section examines a send-type sample workflow process to help you understand
how the workflow process is set up.
The CUT Send Account Data workflow process sends an XML string, created from
an account record, to an IBM MQSeries queue.
Viewing the Sample Workflow Process
You can view any of the sample workflow processes in Siebel eCommunications.
To view the CUT Send Account Data sample workflow process
1 From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Business Process
Administration > Workflow Processes.
2 From the Queries drop-down list, select All Processes.
3 In the Workflow Processes list, select CUT Send Account Data.
4 Click the Process Designer view tab.
The workflow process is displayed as a flowchart.
Integration Object
Integration Object
Hierarchy
Insert or Update
Table 35. CUT Receive Phone Number Data Workflow Process Steps
Viewing CUT Send Account Data Workflow Process Properties
Properties that apply to all steps of a workflow process are called workflow process
properties. These properties apply to all workflow processes:
Error Message
Error Code
Object Id
Siebel Operation Object Id
The CUT Send Account Data workflow process has these additional properties:
Account XML. Specifies the Siebel object that has been converted to XML.
Input: Siebel Int Object Name. Specifies the input Integration Object used in send
workflows.
Process Instance Id. Specifies the process instance and is automatically populated
when a process is executed and persistence is enabled.
To view properties for the CUT Send Account Data workflow process
4 Click the Process Properties view tab.
Viewing the Workflow Process Steps
You can examine the details of any workflow process step.
To examine the details of the CUT Send Account Data workflow process steps
1 From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Workflow
5 Double-click the step you want to view.
Information about the workflow process step appears.
Get Account Data Subprocess Step
The first step after Start is the Get Account Data subprocess. This subprocess
contains two steps:
Get Account Data
Convert to XML
To view the Get Account Data subprocess, follow the directions in To examine the
details of the CUT Send Account Data workflow process steps on page 218 and
double-click the Get Account Data step. The individual substeps are not detailed in
the Sub Process form. To see them, you must view the Get Account Data workflow
process.
Figure 18 shows the Subprocess view for the Get Account Data subprocess step of
the CUT Send Account Data workflow process.
Figure 18. Get Account Data Subprocess Step of the CUT Send Account Data Workflow Process
To examine the details of the CUT Get Account Data subprocess step
3 In the Workflow Processes list, select CUT Get Account Data.
5 Double-click the Get Account Data step.
Get Account Data Step
This step uses the query method of the Siebel EAI Adapter to get an instance of an
account record from the Siebel database. The CUT Sample Account IO describes the
structure of the Account business object and was created using the Integration
Object Builder. The other part of the query criteria is the Object Id, which is a
process property that contains the row ID for the account in the sample DB.
NOTE: The CUT Sample Account IO value is actually specified as a process property
that is used as the input argument for the process step.
Figure 19 shows the Business Service view for the Get Account Data step of the CUT
Get Account Data workflow process.
Convert to XML Step
This step uses the Integration Object Hierarchy to XML Document method of the
EAI XML Converter to convert the outbound Siebel Message to XML and store it in
the Account XML output argument.
Figure 19. Get Account Data Step of the CUT Get Account Data Workflow Process
Figure 20 shows the Business Service view for the Convert to XML step of the CUT
Get Account Data workflow process.
Send Step
The last step in the CUT Send Account Data workflow process before End invokes
the EAI MQSeries Server Transport to put the XML message onto the MQSeries
queue, called Employee. The message is represented by the Message Text argument.
The Queue Manager Name and Physical Queue Name are defined during the
MQSeries setup. The Account XML message is sent to the queue specified by the
Physical Queue Name property, which is managed by the queue manager specified
in the Queue Manager Name property.
Figure 20. Convert to XML Step of the CUT Get Account Data Workflow Process
Sample Workflow Process: CUT Receive Account Data
Figure 21 shows the Business Service view for the Send step of the CUT Send
Account Data workflow process.
This section examines a receive-type sample workflow process to help you
understand how the workflow process is set up.
Viewing the Sample Workflow Process
You can view any of the sample workflow processes in Siebel eCommunications.
Figure 21. Send Step of the CUT Send Account Data Workflow Process
To view the CUT Receive Account Data sample workflow process
3 In the Workflow Processes list, select CUT Receive Account Data.
This sample workflow process, shown in Figure 22, receives an XML string from an
IBM MQSeries queue and updates the Account instance in the Siebel database.
Defining CUT Receive Account Data Workflow Process Properties
You should set workflow process properties when you need a property to be true
for the entire workflow. For example, as shown in the following procedure, the CUT
Receive Account Data workflow process has five properties. The Error Message,
Error Code, Object Id, and Siebel Operation Object Id properties are included in each
workflow process by default. The Account XML property defines the MQSeries
message as XML recognizable by Siebel eBusiness applications.
The CUT Receive Account Data workflow process has these additional properties:
Account Message. Contains the object in its Siebel eCommunications hierarchical
format when converted. It must be in this format before it can be inserted or
Account XML. Specifies the Siebel object that has been converted to XML.
Process Instance Id. Specifies the process instance and is automatically populated
when a process is executed and persistence is enabled.
Figure 22. CUT Receive Account Data Workflow Process
For information about workflow process properties, see Viewing CUT Send
Account Data Workflow Process Properties on page 217.
To view properties for the CUT Receive Account Data workflow process
4 Click the Process Properties view tab.
Viewing the Workflow Process Steps
You can examine the details of each workflow process step.
To examine the details of the CUT Receive Account Data workflow process steps
5 Double-click the step you want to view.
Receive Account Update Step
The Receive method of the EAI MQSeries Server Transport retrieves the inbound
message from the Account physical queue. This queue is named in the Physical
Queue Name argument.
Figure 23 shows the Business Service view for the Receive step of the Receive
Account Data workflow process.
Figure 23. Receive Step of the Receive Account Data Workflow
In this case, the output from the receive step is put into the Account XML process
property. The assumption is that the inbound message is already in XML format.
Convert to Internal Step
The next step, Convert to Internal, uses the XML Document to Integration Object
Hierarchy method of the EAI XML Converter to convert the inbound message to the
Siebel business object format.
Figure 24 shows the Business Service view for the Convert to Internal step of the
Receive Account Data workflow process.
The output argument from this step is stored in the Account Message process
property, in the Siebel Message format.
Figure 24. Convert to Internal Step of the Receive Account Data Workflow
Update Account Step
The last step before End uses the Insert or Update method of the Siebel EAI Adapter
to perform the updating task. As shown in Figure 25 on page 228, the Siebel EAI
Adapter checks the Siebel database for an Account record that matches the current
instance of Account in the Account Message property.
If an Account record matching the current instance does not appear in the database,
the Siebel EAI Adapter inserts the record into the database.
If an Account record in the database matches the current instance, the adapter
updates the record with the instance.
Figure 25 shows the Business Service view for the Update Account step of the
Receive Account Data workflow process.
Figure 25. Update Account Step of the Receive Account Data Workflow
Index
A
account views
about 43
accessing 44
accounts
See also opportunities
account hierarchy example
(diagram) 33
account hierarchy, creating 41
account hierarchy, description 29
account hierarchy, reviewing 42
account hierarchy, viewing as
organization chart 42
account hierarchy, viewing list of child
accounts 42
account views, accessing 44
agreement for an account, viewing 44
business scenario 35
class, description and example 30
class, different information displayed 33
classes, list of 31
creating an account 39
customer portal view, accessing 43
defined 29
equipment, adding installed or
planned 45
external organizations, setting up 38
information, about accessing and end-
user views 43
service item, description 47
telecommunications-related
infrastructure, adding 46
usage detail, viewing information on 44
activity
premises, associating with 94
trouble tickets, adding activity to 168
activity plan
trouble tickets, associating with 167
work order, associating with 152
address
revalidating 66
validating 65
address profile
address, revalidating 66
address, validating 65
creating and updating 64
description 50
adjustment requests
outcome, viewing 139
overview 137
viewing history of 140
administrator procedures
agreement template, verifying 80
agreements, adding 80
agreements, adding items to and
generating a total 82
Auto Document feature, setting up
template for 79
document, creating and printing 82
premise record, about adding 90
premise, adding premise before customer
account exists 91
premise, adding with customer account
exists 92
premises, adding service point to and
associating with 92
administrators, roles and responsibilities,
table of 34
agreement library, description 75
agreements
about using 73
agreement details, examining in
Explorer 86
agreement records, adding 80
agreements library 76
Auto Document feature, setting up
template for 79
business scenario, commercial
customer 76
business scenario, residential
customer 78
defined 73
document, creating and printing 82
entitlements, relationship with 74
library for agreements 76
master agreements, about 75
modifying an agreement 85
order, associating agreement with 84
relationships among agreements,
about 76
sales agreements 74
service agreements 75
service item, associating with 84
service level agreements 75
subagreements, about 75
terms, adding to and generating a
total 82
types of 74
All Premises view fields, table of 91
assets
about using 101
change request, adding associated with
an asset 108
components, viewing associated
with 107
creating assets 104
defined 101
hierarchical information, viewing for an
asset 106
primary asset, associating related assets
with 105
service points and service information,
viewing 109
service request, adding associated with
asset 107
transaction, creating for 106
Auto Document feature
template, setting up for 79
B
batch assignment, about 164
billing
See also adjustment requests; payment
arrangement
about using 123
adjustment for an entire invoice,
requesting 138
adjustment invoice for invoice line item,
requesting 138
adjustment outcome terms, recording
customers decision 140
billing adjustments, customer requests
for 182
billing information, about accessing 128
billing information, sequence for
accessing 130
Billing Portal view, about 128
Billing Portal view, accessing 131
Billing Portal view, views (table) 129
billing profile, updating 144
duplicate invoice, requesting 144
invoice history, viewing 132
invoice line items, viewing 131
Invoice views, accessing 131
invoice, viewing the image of 132
Invoices views, about 130
outstanding balance, about entering
payment against 133
payment against multiple invoices,
recording 135
payment against one invoice,
recording 134
payment history, viewing 135
payment outcome terms, recording
payment, recording at the account
level 133
unbilled charges, viewing 136
usage details, viewing 135
billing adjustments
account adjustments, requesting 183
billing adjustments, about 137
Billing Aggregator Class, description 32
Billing Class, description 32
Billing Portal view
about 128
accessing view 131
views, table of 129
billing profile
description 50
end-user procedures, about and fields
(table) 58
payment information, adding to 58
business services, description 199
C
change request
asset, adding associated with an
asset 108
asset, adding associating with an
asset 108
Communication Order Processing module,
about 149
Communication Work Orders module,
about 149
contacts
contact, adding 69
contact-related activities, setting up 70
contract profile, adding information
to 70
defined 67
email, about sending mail to 71
opportunities, about associating with 71
sequence of procedures example,
diagram 68
trouble ticket, associating with 71
contract profile, adding information to 70
contracts
See also agreements
agreement, type of 74
credit alerts
See also credit management; payment
information
account adjustment, associating with
credit alert 183
activities, associating with credit
alerts 180
adding and reviewing, about 178
adjustment outcome, associating with
credit alert 185
communication with customer,
about 180
defined 173
internal credit alert, creating 179
repayment plans, associating 183
types of credit alerts 178
credit check, running 61
credit management
See also credit alerts
adjustment outcome, viewing 185
credit alert, about reviewing and
adding 178
credit alert, defined 173
credit checks, running 62
credit scores 174
credit thresholds, breach of 173
customer decision, submitting 185
internal credit alert, creating 179
repayment plans 183
task list 173
third-party credit system integration 173
credit scores, displaying 174
credit threshold, breach of 173
customer accounts
associating infrastructure items,
about 47
description 31
My Account view, field descriptions 40
Customer class, description 31
customer portal view, accessing 43
customer profile
description 50
end-user procedures, about 59
customer satisfaction surveys
See also service requests; trouble tickets;
trouble tickets, resolving
about 168
conducting 169
sending out 169
customer service representative
profiles, roles and responsibilities 51
customer service representative, roles and
responsibilities, table of 34
CUT Get Account Data workflow
process 206
CUT Get Phone Number Data workflow
process, steps 214
CUT Get Sales Order Data workflow
process, steps 209
CUT Get Trouble Ticket Data workflow
process, steps 212
CUT Get Work Order Data workflow
process, steps 210
CUT Receive Account Data workflow
process, steps 207
CUT Receive Credit Alert Data workflow
process, steps 214
CUT Receive Fraud Alert Data workflow
process, steps 213
CUT Receive Phone Number Data workflow
process, steps 215
CUT Receive Sales Order Data workflow
process, steps 210
CUT Receive Service Profile Data workflow
process, steps 208
CUT Receive Service Profile Data workflow
subprocess, steps 208
CUT Receive Trouble Ticket Data workflow
process, steps 213
CUT Receive Work Order Data workflow
process, steps 211
CUT Send Account Data workflow process,
steps 206
CUT Send Phone Number Data workflow
process, steps 215
CUT Send Sales Order Data workflow
process, steps 209
CUT Send Service Profile Data workflow
process, steps 207
CUT Send Work Order Data workflow
process, steps 211
CUT Sent Trouble Ticket Data workflow
process, steps 212
D
dynamic assignment, about 164
E
end-user procedures
See also premises
agreement details, examining in
Explorer 86
agreements, associating with an
order 84
agreements, modifying 85
assets, associating related assets with
primary asset 105
assets, creating 104
assets, creating transaction for 106
assets, viewing components associated
with 107
assets, viewing hierarchical information
for 106
assets, viewing service points and service
information 109
infrastructure information, adding to a
premise 97
opportunities, associating a partner
with 120
opportunities, associating account
with 116
opportunities, associating with a
product 117
opportunities, conditions to for updating
quotes 117
opportunities, creating 115
opportunities, creating a profile for an
opportunity 119
opportunity, associating with a related
site 120
premises, associating with an
activity 94
premises, verifying 94
premises, viewing service request
associated with 96
quote, creating for opportunity 117
service item, associating agreements
with 84
service point information, viewing for a
premise 94
service point usage associated with
premise, about viewing 95
service point usage associated with
premise, viewing 95
service request, adding associated with
an asset 107
service request, adding for a premise 96
entitlements
about using 73
agreements, relationship with 74
defined 74
trouble tickets, verifying associating
with 166
verification, about 171
equipment
adding installed or planned 45
list, using and fields 46
exemption profile
description 50
exemption profiles
end-user procedures, fields (table) 60
F
features, new features in this release 13
financial profile
about financial profiles 60
description 50
fields, table of 61
fraud management
customer follow-up, about 194
discontinuing service based on alert,
about 196
fraud alert details, viewing 193
fraud alert, updating 195
fraud alerts, description 189
fraud alerts, viewing 193
fraud threshold, changing 195
fraud threshold, description 190
fraud, defined 189
fraud profile
about and fields (table) 62
description 50
G
guide
feature, new in this release 13
organization of 12
I
incorporated business/individual, credit
check information 62
infrastructure information
Infrastructure view 47
premise, adding to 97
integration objects, description 199
interactive assignment, about 164
Invoice view, accessing 131
invoices
duplicate, requesting 144
L
line items
actions, adding 154
work orders, creating for 153
loyalty profile
description 51
M
manual assignment, about 164
master agreements, about 75
MSAG Profile, description 50
O
opportunities
See also accounts
account, associating opportunity
with 116
description 111
opportunity, creating 115
partner, associating with an
opportunity 120
product, associating with an
opportunity 117
profile, creating for an opportunity 119
quote, conditions to work 117
quote, creating 117
related site, associating with an
opportunity 120
order management module, note about
Service Profile view 51
order, associating agreements with 84
organization of the guide 12
P
parent-child relationship, changing 41
partner, associating opportunity with 120
payment arrangement
history, viewing 142
outcome, viewing 142
overview 141
payment outcome terms, recording
requesting 141
payment information
See also credit alerts
entering, about 181
payment record, creating 181
record adjustments 182
premises
See also end-user procedures
activity, associating with 94
attachments, about 98
business scenarios 88
caller verification, about 98
customer account exists, adding
when 92
customer account, adding before
existence of 91
customer accounts, about 98
defined 87
infrastructure information, adding to a
premise 97
notes, about 99
premise record, about adding 90
sales orders, about 98
service item identifier, about 88
service point information, viewing 94
service point, adding and associating
with 92
service point, defined 87
service request, adding for a premise 96
service request, viewing associating
with 96
usage history, about viewing 95
usage history, viewing 95
verifying a premise 94
profiles
accounts, profiles, and back-office
systems, interrelationships
(table) 56
address profile, creating and
updating 64
address, revalidating 66
address, validating 65
billing profile, about and fields
(table) 58
billing profile, adding payment
information to 58
creating or updating 57
customer profile, about end-user
procedures 59
defined 50
exemption profile fields, table of 60
exemption profile, about end-user
procedures 59
financial profile fields, table of 61
financial profile, about end-user
procedures 60
fraud profile, about and fields (table) 62
loyalty profile, about end-user
procedures 63
roles and responsibilities, table of 51
site profile, about end-user procedures
and fields (table) 63
statement profile, about end-user
procedures and fields (table) 64
types, table of 50
Q
quotes. See opportunities
R
Receive Account Data workflow
account record, updating 228
inbound message, converting 227
inbound messages from IBM MQSeries,
receiving 226
release, new features 13
repayment plans
customer decision, submitting 185
description 182
repayment plan outcome, viewing 185
repayment plans, about 141
request for 183
views listed 182
responsibilities
profiles, table of 51
table of 34
roles
profiles, table of 51
table of 34
S
sales administrators, roles and
responsibilities 34
sales agreements, description 74
sales managers, roles and
responsibilities 34
sales representative
profiles, roles and responsibilities 51
roles and responsibilities, table of 34
screens, table of 24
Send Account Data workflow
outbound message, sending 222
Service Aggregator Class, description 31
service agreements, description 75
Service class, description 31
service information, viewing assets 109
service item
agreements, associating with 84
description 47
identifier, about 88
service level agreements, description 75
service point
assets, viewing 109
defined 87
premise, adding to and associating
with 92
premise, viewing service point
information for 94
Service Profile view, note about order
management module 51
service requests
See also customer satisfaction surveys;
trouble tickets; trouble tickets,
resolving; work orders
administrator setup, about 162
asset, adding to associate with service
request 107
contact, associating with 71
creating, about 158
description 157
initiating, about 158
premise, adding for a premise 96
premise, viewing associated with 96
trouble tickets, differences between 157
Siebel eBusiness Application Integration
(eAI), description 198
Siebel eCommunications
business issues, solutions to (table) 20
description 19
screens and functions (table) 24
Siebel eMedia
business issues, solutions to (table) 20
screens and functions (table) 24
site profile
description 51
end-procedures, about and fields
(table) 63
statement profile
description 51
end-user procedures, about and fields
(table) 64
end-user procedures, about statement
profiles 64
subagreements, about 75
T
telecommunications-related infrastructure,
adding 46
third-party credit systems 173
trouble tickets
service requests; trouble tickets,
resolving
administrator setup, about 162
analyzing data 170
attachments, about 171
closing trouble tickets 168
contact, associating with 71
creating overview 163
creating trouble tickets 163
creating, about 158
customer satisfaction surveys,
initiating 170
customer verification, about 170
description 157
entitlement verification, about 171
entitlement, verifying associating
with 166
existing parent tickets, associating child
ticket with 165
field service agents, about
communication with 171
initiating, about 158
partner software, about referring to 158
person or group, assigning
manually 164
person or group, assigning to 164
service requests, differences
between 157
solutions, about reviewing 166
solutions, defined 167
trouble tickets, resolving
service requests; trouble tickets
activity plan, associating with 167
activity, about adding to 167
activity, adding to 168
U
unbilled charges, viewing 136
unincorporated business, credit check
information 62
usage
billing, viewing details 135
detail information, viewing 44
service point associated with premise,
about viewing 95
service point associated with premise,
viewing 95
W
work orders
See also service requests
activity for a work order, creating 153
activity plan, associating with 152
attachments, about relating to 155
defined 149
line item actions, adding 154
line items, creating 153
service information, viewing 109
work order terms, adding 154
work orders, creating 151
workflow process, integrating
See also workflow process, sample
business scenarios 199
CUT Get Account Data workflow
process 206
CUT Get Phone Number Data workflow
process 214
CUT Get Sales Order Data workflow
process 209
CUT Get Service Profile Data workflow
subprocess 208
CUT Get Trouble Ticket Data workflow
process 212
CUT Get Work Order Data workflow
process 210
CUT Receive Account Data workflow
process 207
CUT Receive Credit Alert Data workflow
process 214
CUT Receive Fraud Alert Data workflow
process 213
CUT Receive Phone Number Data
workflow process 215
CUT Receive Sales Order Data workflow
process 210
CUT Receive Service Profile Data
CUT Receive Trouble Ticket Data
CUT Receive Work Order Data workflow
process 211
CUT Send Account Data workflow
process 206
CUT Send Phone Number Data workflow
process 215
CUT Send Sales Order Data workflow
process 209
CUT Send Service Profile Data workflow
process 207
CUT Send Trouble Ticket Data workflow
process 212
CUT Send Work Order Data workflow
process 211
sample processes, about 205
workflow process, sample
See also workflow process, integrating
CUT Receive Account Data, defining
properties 224
CUT Receive Account Data, viewing
sample process 223
CUT Receive Account Data, viewing
workflow process steps 225
CUT Send Account Data, viewing process
properties 217
CUT Send Account Data, viewing
CUT Send Account Data, viewing
workflow process steps 218
workflow processes, description 199
See also workflow process, integrating;
workflow process, sample
workflows, sample
Receive Account Data, converting the
inbound message 227
Receive Account Data, receiving the
inbound message from IBM
MQSeries 226
Receive Account Data, updating the
account record 228
Send Account Data, accessing the
Workflow Process Designer 216
Send Account Data, sending outbound
message 222

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